Board of Control discusses expansion plans; current financials

After their September meeting was rescheduled to Oct. 1, the Board of Control of the Marshall County HMA came together for a second time this month; this time on Oct. 22.

The agenda called for the discussion of current invoices and financials as well as funding for the Marshall County Health Program.

There was also some discussion about the pending hospital renovation project, which was discussed in-depth at the Aug. 27 meeting. The Phase 1 will include the patient win, lab, main entrance, materials management, emergency department and part of administration.

Phases 1 and 2 are set to cost a total of $8,050.000, said Becky

Brinlee, Alliance Health Madill executive administrator. Tracy Byers, the chief administrative officer for Alliance Health Madill, said the renovation is needed because the building was originally built in 1964.

“The rooms have really aged over the years,” he said. “The bathrooms are really small and not all of the rooms have bathrooms.”

Byers said the renovation will change the existing rooms to 14 rooms total; three single occupancy private rooms and 11 semi-private rooms.

“The semi-private rooms can have two patients at a time and that way we can get to our maximum 25-person capacity as a critical care facility,” he said.

The meeting itself

Four of the five board members were present: Sam Huffman (chairman), Walter Bruce Bigger, (secretary/ treasurer) and members Ramona Clark Judd and Eloisa Sanchez. Keith Long (vice chair) was absent from the meeting. The group’s first action was to review and approve the minutes of the Oct. 1 meeting. Then, the board’s accountant, Tom Briggs, led discussion of the invoices, financials and MCHP funding. Briggs said the current invoices included one for $6,000 to King Architectural Services (the architect who has planned a pending renovation of hospital rooms), two months’ worth of payment to the board’s legal counsel, Ken Delashaw, and one month for Briggs’ accounting service. “The total is about a little over $7,500 this time for approval,” he said. “you can see the funds available to pay those is listed below the checking account, money market so we have a little over $9 million as of today in the bank.” Briggs went to say that the Board of Control received notice that day that their tax check for next month (November 2019) is $187,976.00. “You can see on page 2 of the sales tax receipt report that the past several months we have great sales tax coming in,” he said. “For the last six months, it’s been higher than average. We’re running way ahead in income tax receipts.” In his written report, Briggs provided the Board of Control with a five-page section showing cash projections for the next four years that covers the project. “The first four pages show projections on a monthly basis for the timeline of the project and one page showing the annual [projection],” he said. Briggs said they are working with the architect and contractor to finalize the costs of the project. Both of Briggs’ reports were unanimously approved by the board members present. During the meeting, Roy Matheny appeared on behalf of the Marshall County EMS. Matheny shared concerns about MCEMS not being reimbursed by the Board of Control or Alliance Health Madill for transfer of indigent care patients to other medical facilities. Matheny said they have had to write off $200,000 in related unpaid bills. He said most of these transfers are expense. “It costs $1,000 to take a patient from Madill to Durant,” he said. “If they don’t pay it, then after two years we have to write it off.” Huffman said he understands Matheny’s concerns and knows the importance of an ambulance service. He told Matheny that the board would research the matter further. There was also some discussion about the pending contract between the Board of Control and Matt King of King Architectural Services. Delashaw said the contract looks good other than using arbitration to resolve any potential disputes.