By Mary Alice Murphy

The Gila Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees members met for their regular meeting on Friday, April 22.

Before the meeting, the Beat was introduced to a new staff member, Assistant Controller Hilton Dickson III, who is from the area. He will assist Controller Elizabeth Allred with some of the financial duties.

Board members, as is traditional, recognized Michael A. Ybarra for his 15 years of service to GRMC, presently in the pathology lab.

Eileen Smith presented the Auxiliary report, as being in the packet, and she stood for questions. None was posed.

Chief Executive Officer Brian Cunningham highlighted two items of his report. "We have a tentative agreement with a new ENT (ear, nose and throat specialist) to replace Dr. Twana Sparks, who will retire in August. He will take over the practice around August 1."

Cunnigham also highlighted an article on outcomes of Medicaid. "The reimbursements will drop by 5 percent on inpatient care, and 10 percent on outpatient care to cover the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid budget shortfall."

The Assistant Vice President of Administration Liana Ryan received no questions to her report.

Chief Nursing Officer Peggy White announced that May 6-12 is Nurses Week.

"I hope we do something fine for them," Board Chairman Charlie Kelly said. "Nurses are an integral part of health care everywhere."

Joe Kellerman, marketing director, noted that it overlaps with Hospital Week, and "we will have a celebration."

Chief Operations Officer Jed Rudd said, as part of the IT upgrade, departmental dashboards had been posted. "They are the key tools to address communication."

He said Gila Regional is in alignment with quality, as highlighted in a recent article. "We are reflecting cutting edge health care."

Chief of Clinical Services Ray Goellner was not present, but Ashley Burgos, who is part of the succession plan for the position, attended the meeting and asked for questions on the report, but received none.

Allred gave the Chief Financial Officer report, as CFO Michael Metts was out of town.

"We had a $157,000 loss in March, so our year-to-date loss is just over $1 million," Allred said. "We had $400,000 allocated for contractual bad debts, but they were way below what we had budgeted. We had collections of more than $6 million, which is the highest in recent memory. I think that's good news. And we have 130 days of cash."

"We are trending in the right direction," Kelly said.

Cunningham said in industry trends, the average number of days of cash in rural hospitals is 110, so "we are above that. For the context of the loss, we are investing heavily in the IT overhaul. When it is complete, then the resources will be pulled back into operations."

Chief of Staff Dr. Gregory Koury received no questions on his report, although the revised bylaws were approved.

Kelly said the Executive Committee did not meet, because "everyone was out of town or unavailable. The staff took care of the agenda."

Board Trustee Rudolpho "Rudy" Martinez presented the Quality Improvement Committee meeting and said the Ryan had given them an update on the new regulations to be followed.

Trustee Jeremiah Garcia gave the Finance Committee report and asked for approval of contracts, which included:
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