TONASKET – The 2011 budget for the North Valley Hospital District will be presented at the next hospital board meeting on Thursday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. in the boardroom.

During the board’s meeting on Thursday, Oct. 28, Chief financial Officer Bomi Bharucha said the district is close to being on track for paying off the warrants.

“The budget is done and we’ve budgeted $2 million in revenue because we’re picking up about $200,000 a month in charges we haven’t done before,” he said.

Written reports were submitted by Support Services Director John Boyd, Patient Care Coordinator Sandi Milligan and Human Resources Director Jan Gonzales. Boyd’s report addressed the construction project

“The glass panel at the front counter has been redone and installed, it has not fallen again and they did the support with rods instead of cables,” Boyd wrote. “We have had a few problems with some of the systems- Nurse Call and Door Access yet are getting all resolved. We have decided to do the frame and install the signs across the street ourselves to cut down on the cost. We are still working on the fire sprinkler change for the elevator area in the existing hospital building. We are trying to meet with Christian Johnson to review the things we need to complete to receive the permanent CO.”

Boyd went on to write the support services staff is in the process of planning for the move of the clinic to the second floor of the existing hospital building which involves the clinic staff and surgery staff and acute care, stating they are hoping to begin a minor remodel by the maintenance staff within the next few weeks.

Milligan’s report addressed the move into the new hospital building.

“The move to the new addition of the hospital was carried out with the help of volunteers and employees from many departments,” Milligan wrote. “It was an amazing example of cooperation and teamwork. The staff continues to work on adjusting to the new environment and the flow of patient care. The patients express an appreciation of the bigger rooms and private bathrooms. The rooms are private unless the census requires semi-private accomdations.”

According to Gonzales’ report, the human resources department has been busy interviewing prospective employees in the last month.

“We have several open positions in both the hospital and long term care divisions and we are beginning a new NAC class next week with twelve students,” she wrote. “The openings on the hospital side include a part-time RN, a full-time Health Unit Secretary, one part-time and one full-time patient registration clerk, one part-time and one full-time patient representative, a clinic/patient registration clerk and a transcriptionist/HIM office aide.”

Gonzales explained the patient representative position as being “a new position that will be implemented in the near future to meet the needs of patients and family members, specifically in the area of communication and to provide assistance to visitors, i.e. escorting to appropriate department, etc. and to visit daily with all inpatients to ensure all patients’ and/or families needs are being met.”

Judy Gladden, Long Term Care manager, also submitted a written report to the board.

“We had our annual state survey in the Assisted Living the first week of the month,” Gladden wrote. “The written report just came today and we have several citations involving nursing assessments and medications. There are new criteria for orientation specifically related to the boarding home setting that we were also cited on. That will need to be addressed with a separate AL orientation packet. We no longer have to write a plan of correction and send to the surveyors. We just sign an attestation statement for each citation and return. It’s a much simpler process than in the extended care.”

The next hospital board meeting will be on Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. in the boardroom.