TONASKET – Repair of the broken down generator at North Valley Hospital should begin in about two weeks, Chief Information Officer Kelly Cariker reported at the Thursday, Feb. 27, meeting of the NVH Board of Commissioners.

“All of our funding got approved,” Cariker said. “We had to fill out a credit application because it is such a large undertaking. We will get a check back from the insurance company; we have to pay the vendor and the insurance will cut us a check.”

The generator will have to be removed from the hospital by crane March 13-14, Cariker said, and transported to Spokane for repair.

“Someone from the insurance company will be there for the teardown to see what the catastrophic problem was,” he said. “They will rebuild it with a short block and in about two weeks will bring it back.”

The generator, an 800 kilowatt diesel that was installed as part of the new building construction project in 2010, experienced a catastrophic failure during its monthly load test in early January.

Cariker also reported that the hospital had changed coding and transcription vendors. Also, he said that John Sanchez had been hired as plant supervisor. The former owner of Sarge’s Burger Bunker has been working at a casino on the west side of the state.

“He also brings experience in the hospitality side that ties into some things we do,” Cariker said. “He has spent some time observing and adjusting to our culture and is starting to make some improvements where he sees the need in some departments.”

Accounting move

The Verbeck Building, into which physical therapy has moved (with an open house this Friday at noon) will be moved for accounting purposes from the Extended Care division to the Hospital division.

The building previously housed the assisted living facility that closed about a year ago.

Now that the building is fully occupied by hospital functions, CFO Helen Verhasselt said, the move could be made.

“What’s happened as we were transitioning from extended care, occupying the space, we’ve been increasing the interdivision rent the hospital was paying to the Extended Care side,” Verhasselt said. “Now that it is fully occupied by the hospital – it is still falling under the district’s umbrella – it’s just moving the asset and the liability (the bond) to the hospital’s books. Now we’ll get the reimbursement based on the depreciation, instead of the interdivision lease expense.”

The Board of Commissioners next meets on Thursday, March 13.