Newly elected North Valley Hospital District board member Stephanie Steiman and reelected board member Jerry Bradley, are administered the oath of office at the board’s Thursday, Dec. 21 meeting. Steinman will serve in District 5, At-Large.. Bradley returns as the representative for Disrtrict 2. Gary De Von/staff photos

TONASKET – The North Valley Hospital Board met Thursday, Dec. 14, for their last meeting of the year, saying goodbye to outgoing board president Jean Pfeifer and welcoming new board member Stephanie Steinman.

Pfeifer asked if there was no public comment on the agenda and hearing none, she called for the administrator reports.

CEO John McReynolds said there was a written administration report, but he few items he wanted to highlight.

“Phase one of our construction project is really close to done. So, they’ve got a little bit more electrical work and there’s still a little bit of the hard labor. They are still installing ceiling tiles there and we are looking at the clean-up and moving on to phase two,” said the administrator.

“Phase two is on the second floor of the St. Martin’s building. We did have to move some of our dietary dry storage up to that spot, but we will have to move that all back down. So, there are a couple of dominos that have to fall for them to get started in earnest,” said McReynolds.

The CEO said that phase of the project would begin in the next couple of weeks. He said phase two will be kicking off in January for construction on the second floor. He added that Wound Care and Surgery have relocated and there were a “couple of desks and some filing things,” to move so they can get started on the next phase.

“We are moving on to the next phase, which is really exciting. So, kitchen, central supply and IT are really excited to have construction out of the basement and moving on to the next phase,” he said.

He said he wanted to thank “Kim Jacobs, Michelle and Vicky” who all participated in a missing Extended Care resident drill.

“It was a really good exercise, it was primarily a drill, but it also gave the security team a chance to exercise on doing a building search and that initial phase of locating a resident that got off campus,” said McReynolds.

“The exercise was cut short; we used a real resident who got tired and wanted to move back home. So, we had to cut short the actual searching, but we still had enough of an exercise that we built confidence in the routine and enough things that could have gone better that we identified them,” he said.

McReynolds said the state has been putting focus on charity care.

“So, as an area of regulatory focus or just a kind of hot topic among these legal groups really ensuring we are following the letter of the law around charity care and having it available and clear to everyone. The particular topic that is at issue right now does not apply to us, it has not been an element of our policy, but other hospitals have used geographic restrictions in their charity care,” said McReynolds.

The CEO said these hospitals would say things like charity care is only available to Washington State residents or to U.S. citizens or in some way would limit who it was available for.

“The state, through the attorney general, had an issue with that, there is ongoing legal action between the state and those hospitals. Again, not related to our hospital because our policy does not have any geographic restriction in it. But, it’s just an area of high interest. We’ve done a review with the support of the hospital district. We’ve made some changes to what’s visible on the website to make sure they know what’s available for charity care to get the care they need,” said the administrator.

The Acute Care census numbers started the month strong before moderating in the middle of the month, according to the administrator’s report. Other departments experienced mixed variances from their targets.

At the Extended Care, the current status is 36 residents and holding due to a COVID outbreak.

“We have had several staff members out with it as well,” said McReynolds. “However, we are beginning to see the end as residents are starting to come off isolation. Once we have the ‘alls clear,’ admissions will resume.”

The goal was for the Extended Care to reach 40 by the end of the year, but with the outbreak the district hopes to achieve 40 by mid to late January. The payer breakdown for the facility shows 11 are private pay and 24 are Medicaid and one is Medicare.

The meeting concluded with the swearing-in of new board member Steinman and returning board member Jerry Bradley, who currently serves as the board’s vice president. The board will choose the president and vice-president, as well as committee appointments in the new year.

Outgoing board member Jean Pfeifer told the board she was quitting to let someone younger take over her position. She thanked the board, administration and staff for their efforts during the time she was on the board and that she had enjoyed serving the district.