Hospital board hears department reports

At the March 28 Hot Springs Health board meeting held in their conference room, CEO Scott Alwin was absent. Board Chairman Dr. Bill Williams and Human Resources Director Linda Veylupek helmed the meeting. 

Veylupek introduced Darla Reynolds OR RN, who received her PeriOp 101 certification. This is from a premier standardized education program for RNs entering the perioperative specialty. Reynolds has been at the hospital for the past two years and was previously from Dubois.

Reynolds said, “The course is really designed to just basically fine-tune what we already do every day. But it just gives us the best evidence-based practices as new things keep coming forward… It really helped in the process of learning a little bit more about anesthesia and how we can help the patients, pre and post, and patient assessment.” Reynolds added the training covered a variety of other areas in the operation room, keeping a sterile environment to prevent infections as well. She also said the training addressed patient and family education pre-surgery and post-surgery care. 

Dr. Mattson Mathey gave the medical staff update and said that their trauma coordinator Shelby Soderstrom and Dr. Nicole Jamieson have been getting out in the community and doing some education topics with EMS. For the OB committee, they had a brief discussion about how to make a uniform glucose tolerance test policy across all their clinics. Mathey also said they are looking at a change in their tele-stroke coverage. They have been using Wyoming Medical Center for some time and their tele-stroke coverage is being discontinued. Now they are planning to trial a new tele-stroke service out of Colorado called Blue Sky Neurology. 

CFO Kevin Benson gave the financial report and said “Since last fall we’ve been working on a margin improvement plan and we did an update through that plan. We’ve identified another $500,000 of mostly expense reductions. So we’re up to transitioning $3.2 million for next year. Now, a lot of these changes won’t be realized going into the next year, but I think we’re setting ourselves up with some good measures, good objectives.” Benson also said they have submitted an ARPA grant application for $40 million.

John Gibbel gave the marketing report and said they have been visiting job fairs to promote the hospital where they focus on their internship program. They were also at Central Wyoming College talking to graduated nurses and presenting their information, and giving away gift baskets and other items. They also held a drawing at the career fairs where the students give their contact information so the hospital can follow up with the students later to be potential applicants. 

Gibbel also said they had a bell with a wooden mount which was donated by Nikki and Craig Yergen for those who complete their cancer treatments in the ambulatory and celebrate their success. Gibbel also reported they held CPR classes in Shoshoni at the school where they focused on compression-only training. The students also learned about the chambers of the heart and how circulation in the body works. Gibbel added, “The kids really got excited about it because they were actually involved. It wasn’t just someone talking to each other.”

Verlene Luna gave the growth report and said they went live with their CERNER integration on April 3 in their Basin clinic. This will be their small trial for the integration before they expand the integration and go live in Thermopolis, Worland, Riverton and Shoshoni on May 22. In the Basin release, they will learn and streamline their processes. Luna also reported that surgeon Dr. Nicole Jamieson is now integrated into their rural health clinics, which is an opportunity for collaboration with their other physicians. 

CCO Dan Hemann reported that the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is wrapping up in its final stages. They have received their results and will be coordinating with the relevant healthcare entities in the community to discuss the CHNA finding. Then they will coordinate plans and monitor and track their success and hopefully correct some things. Hemann said the top three findings of the CHNA are desires for increased mental health, substance abuse and suicide care; chronic disease prevention and education; and then general health care access.