Hospital board reviews annual audits

The Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital Board met Tuesday and reviewed several annual audits and made additional reports by their members.

Kelli Hoblit from the Big Horn Basin Clinic gave a report and overview to the Board of how the hospital meets the federal qualifications for the 340b drug pricing program.  This program was created in 1992 and allows prescription medications to be made available to those in need at a significantly discounted price.

Michael Wright, an accountant of Koerwitz Wright and Associates, gave two auditor reports for both financial and compliance.  He noted a remedy to the issues in his finding of two accounts with both Pinnacle Bank and Western Alliance Bank. The accounts he mentioned went beyond the FDIC insured balance amount of $250,000 and therefore they were not secured.  After discovering the issue the monies were moved into other accounts and made sure that all funds were secure and followed federal statutes.  This remedy occurred in December 2019.

Shelly Larson, CFO of the hospital, said that of these accounts the hospital did not have control over the funds and that the USDA reviews the transactions against their budget. She said, “It is very difficult to fudge these numbers.”

There will be another audit next year and a further audit the following year.  Overall, there must be a minimum of $750,000 funds for a compliance audit. The hospital board motioned and approved the audits.

Dr. Vernon Miller reported that the staff of the hospital is really excited and encouraged about the new building. He said, “I think it will lift everybody’s spirits.” He talked about an Advanced Trauma Life support put on by the Wyoming Chapter of College of Surgeons. Dr. Miller said that this is a new course that was highly interactive and not one where students watched a PowerPoint presentation. There is a lot of conversation and interaction.

Regarding the new hospital building, he expressed excitement about the new OR rooms, other rooms and equipment. He said, “It’s just well designed.” He added, there have been discussions to have the hospital nurses get new training on mid-line and pick-line IVs so patients have a better experience with treatments such as chemotherapy.

He ended his report about meeting at the College of Surgeons with a young resident in her fourth year in Detriot, Dr. Necole Jamison. She attended the recent meeting and Dr. Miller introduced her to a variety of other doctors. He expressed a scenario that potential doctors worry about coming to rural areas and feeling lonely, but after this doctor observed the community support and camaraderie it made a huge impression. Dr. Jamison is potentially interested in learning more about the community and staff and may make a visit in March.

Shelly Larson, CFO, gave her financial report and said December was a good month in revenue and expenses.  The hospital’s cash in hand has increased as well.  There was an increase of services in December and she commented that one contributing factor was patients had met their deductibles and sought care.

Linda Veylupeck, HR Director, reported that the employee turnover for 2019 was lower than 2018 and that many employees are happy with the new health insurance. She also said that there is an increase in employees enrolling their families. There will be some upcoming projects such as the new director leader orientation process and ongoing education and training for the staff. 

Margie Molitor, CEO, said they were pleased to welcome Hot Springs Health Surgical Clinic into their organization on January 1 with Dr. Miller and his support staff. She said, “This is going to be a beneficial collaboration on both of our parts as we work to recruit for another surgeon for the next couple of years.” 

Molitor said there are new ultrasound machines in the ER and physicians are receiving training on them to do fast exams.

She also discussed their rural training track for residents who had conducted eight interviews. The doctors and interviewees go through a ranking of their interest and hopefully they can find good matches. They will find out if they will have a match in March. Molitor said, “Hopefully we will have a match and have a new resident who will start in Casper next August and be here starting in September 2021 full time.”

Molitor also mentioned Dr. Steven Asay of Billings who grew up in Worland is interested in potentially coming back to the Basin.