By Mary Alice Murphy

Members of the Gila Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees at their regular monthly meeting on March 24, 2017, recognized Judith Tucker, who works in discharge planning, for her 20 years of service to the hospital. She was unable to attend.

Interim Chief Executive Officer Alfredo Ontiveros introducd JoBeth Vance as the interim chief financial officer.

"I met her at a hospital where I was hired," Ontiveros said. "She has a lot of experience at large, rural and small hospitals."

Vance said she and her husband are retired and travel to where she gets work as an interim CFO. "We are from southwest Oklahoma, but I have 27 years in the hospital business. I enjoy the interim work, which I have been doing for about five years."

"We support you," Board President Jeremiah Garcia said.

Chris DeBolt, a previous employee of GRMC for about 10 years, gave public input.

"I am on the selection committee (for a permanent CEO)," DeBolt said. "I come with great appreciation for the extraordinary work you are doing in this difficult time for health care. I know your work is to bring about change. I know changes are hard. How you do them is almost as important.

"I encourage you to be thoughtful in your decisions," she continued. "I left a year ago. I still get phone calls from people. Remember that transparency is important to quell rumors."

She said hiring and retaining high-quality staff is difficult, but that perception is what matters. "Why would I place my new career as a nurse or doctor at Gila Regional? In the process of hiring a new CEO, who will also have to hire new leadership, you and he have to gain the trust of caregivers. Be careful."

Under reports updates, Auxilian Eileen Smith was in attendance to answer questions on the report in the packet.

Trustee Tony Trujillo asked if the board ever heard reports from the Gila Regional Medical Center Foundation. "I remember we had them 20 years ago," Ontiveros said. "I will ask them if they want to give a report."

In his CEO report, Ontiveros said he did a reduction in force (RIF) and will leave vacant positions unfilled for the time being, but "we will keep them on the roster."

He reported the RIF and leaving positions vacant will save the hospital $1,079 million in annual costs, not including benefits.

One of the items Ontiveros was tasked with when he took the interim CEO position was to get the Meditech 6 upgrade completed. "I assigned Ken Stone to head it up. He said we are still on track for June 1. We are on the third parallel test and will work on resolutions of issues next week. System changes have slowed, and we hope for none after May 8. The program has cost a $4 million overrun."

He said the hospital has completed renegotiating contracts and eliminating some. "Some costs are not yet determined, for instance, the training on Meditech 6. I will let JoBeth handle the financial revenue cycle. (Assistant Vice President of Administration) Liana (Ryan) will talk about recruitment. I was also tasked to do community liaison work. I'm out doing outreach," Ontiveros said.

Trujillo asked how many contracts the hospital has. "The salaries for contractors are extremely high. Is it all Meditech?"

"We did have nine contractors," Ontiveros said. "We are down to six. Some are Meditech and they are costing at least $19,000 a month."

Trujillo said one of the most difficult things is RIF. "We need to remind us all that this board gave the interim CEO five tasksG