CUTLINE – Pictured are Lisa Casteel, CEO, along with administrative team members and board members at Thursday night’s HCMC Board of Trustees meeting. Most members and staff were on Zoom as attendance is optional.
Paris, TN – Sandra Ray, Administrator of the Henry County Healthcare Center, kicked off the meeting with an exciting announcement that our facility is now a 5 star facility by Care Compare, with a 4 or 5 star rating in every qualifying data area. Ray discussed the new Care Compare website that replaced the Nursing Home Compare site by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“I am so proud of facility, our people, and their dedication to provide the best care for our residents and patients,” said Ray.
Paula Bell, Director of Pharmacy, discussed the vaccination process at Henry County Medical Center. As lead of the vaccination task force, she presented on the process and our success in helping our county achieve number one in the state for population percentage vaccinated for several weeks.
“We administered our last vaccine 30 minutes ago,” said Bell. “We vaccinated over 1,700 people in our county through the process, with over 3,400 vaccines total distributed. Eleven different departments came together to help with the first community vaccination POD and even more for the second.”
Henry County is now vaccinating 1a1, 1a2, 1b as well as 70 and above. Currently, we have no more vaccine to provide and we are unsure if we will receive any more vaccine, but we are here to help our health department and other counties as needed.
“Helping our community get vaccinated helps us to ensure that our hospital and staff are not overrun with COVID-19 patients,” said Lisa Casteel, CEO. “We are very willing to help our county and the region with vaccinations. We are committed to ensuring the health in our community.”
As of January 25, Henry County was at 9.34% of the population vaccinated, which is above the state average of 6.5%.
“According to the CDC, for every one patient with COVID-19, there are six that we do not know about,” said Dr. Scott Whitby, HCMC Board of Trustees Chair. “With vaccinations we hopefully are hitting the tail end of this.”
HCMC has seen a downturn in the number of COVID-19 patients from the 20s to around 12. State, district and HCMC cases of COVID-19 have seen double-digit decreases over the last seven days.
In her Administrative report, Casteel discussed the new TennCare program’s modified block grant from the 1115 Waiver program. It is believed with this program, our state will offer a much more flexible program with more available funding and more autonomy.
In other news, HCMC is actively recruiting a gastroenterologist and we just completed the Revenue Cycle Reviews with the Delta Grant program. Casteel will be joining THA’s Rural Policy Institute through the Rural Health Association of Tennessee.
On Monday, the renovated Pre-Op Holding Suite will open. This is part of the third phase of the Cardiology Plan. Phase 4 will begin soon which involves renovating inside surgery to move the supply storage area. Phase 5, with the new Cath Lab space, will follow.
“Staff and supplies are ready to go in the existing Cath Lab,” said Casteel.
Brad Bloemer, CFO reviewed the financial report for December with the board. Beginning in July, our case mix index increased significantly with our COVID-19 patients and intense use of resources and longer lengths of stay. Our statistics for December over last December and budget are all negative due to the pandemic and reduced use of services. In December, HCMC had a consolidated income of $1,128,943 for the month. Without COVID-19 stimulus money and investments, we would be breaking even or even at a loss.
“Everything is really distorted right now,” said Bloemer. “It can be confusing as we try to plan because the numbers do not reflect actual volumes.”
Revenues for the physician clinics are the exception to the negative statistics, showing improvement. Currently, they are on budget for the year to date.
“We have received $15.3 million in total from grants and stimulus funds, and we have spent or allocated all but $500,000 that we have received,” said Bloemer. “We have essentially spent all of the designated funds that we have received. We are unsure if we will receive any other funding at this time.”
Bad debts for the month were approved for $462,411.25. Additionally, a couple of capital equipment requests for ER and surgery including a bladder scanner and an ultrasound were approved at $15,645 for the month.
Under new business, Bloemer presented the quarterly investment earnings report to the Board. Casteel discussed the board self-evaluation that the board members provided. The board scored themselves as very good to excellent, with the majority of areas scoring high.
To learn more about the growth at Henry County Medical Center, go to our website at www.hcmc-tn.org and read about all the services we offer to care for our community.
The next Board of Trustees meeting will be February 25 at 5:30 p.m. at Henry County Medical Center in the Board Room or via Zoom.
About Henry County Medical Center
Located in Paris, TN, Henry County Medical Center is a progressive, integrated healthcare organization committed to serving the healthcare needs of Henry County and the adjoining region. Including a 142-bed hospital and 7 other facilities, the medical center provides a variety of outpatient services, as well as inpatient care. Henry County Medical Center is a county-owned and operated nonprofit institution. For more information: www.hcmc-tn.org.