Hospital board initiates search for new administrator

The Texas County Memorial Hospital board of trustees has entered into an agreement with a recruiting firm to assist in finding and hiring a new chief executive officer for the hospital.  The decision was made at the monthly meeting on Tuesday.  
Jeff Tindle, president, and CEO of Tindle & Associates from Gravois Mills, MO, will lead the search. 
Tindle, a former hospital CEO, has spent most of his career working in and with rural hospitals. “I have an intense passion for small rural community hospitals,” Tindle said. 
Tindle served on the Missouri Hospital Association Board and was president and CEO of The Association of Independent Hospitals and AIH Services, Inc.  Recently, he assisted Cedar County Memorial Hospital in Eldorado Springs and Carroll County Memorial Hospital in Carrollton in finding new administrators. 
Tindle outlined his approach which includes a search committee made up of hospital board members, physicians, employees, and community members.  “These individuals will be those that possess a high degree of trust with fellow associates and within the community,” Tindle said.
 “We need a team builder and leader for our staff and community.” Jay Loveland, vice president of the TCMH board of trustees, said.
Tindle is already developing a profile for the candidate search, which he expects will take two to three months to complete. 
July financials were presented by Linda Pamperien, TCMH chief financial officer, at the board meeting.  They reflected a decrease of $318,218 in overall revenues from budgeted expectations for the month.
“Our inpatient volumes took another hit this month and were down $528,624, a 29.2 percent decrease from budgeted expectations,” Pamperien said. 
The contractual adjustments at TCMH – the difference between the charge for care provided and the amount of money the hospital receives for the services – were higher again for the month.  
“Our outpatient revenue was up in comparison with budgeted expectations for the month with a $205,062 increase,” Pamperien said. 
Pamperien noted that the hospital’s overall expenses were down $93,877 for the month.  
According to Pamperien, the cash flow statement reflected a negative for the month of July of $475,741.  The majority of this was capital expenditures for the hospital including architect fees for the new surgery center, microbiology equipment for the lab, and partial payment for the c-arm equipment in surgery.  
“Even though the cash flow is negative, we are executing capital projects such as finishing the surgery center,” Pamperien said. “This is the only way we’re going to move forward is to finish that project.” She said the hospital is hopeful to be reimbursed for the larger part of the expenses through funding secured by the TCMH Healthcare Foundation. 
The hospital ended the month of July with a negative bottom line of $514,085 and a year-to-date loss of $2,882,753.
Jeff Gettys, TCMH Healthcare Foundation director, explained that approval has been given from the Community Development Block Grant program to begin an environmental study at the property in Licking where TCMH hopes to have a new clinic and ambulance base.  The study will take about 90 days to complete. This study must be completed before the purchase of the building can take place. 
Board members heard that the new hospitalist weekend coverage has been going very well.  “Dr. Clarisse Tallah and Dr. Chad Law have each provided weekend coverage for obstetrics, pediatrics, and medicine call and it went very smooth,” Pamperien said. 
Courtney Owens, TCMH chief nursing officer, introduced Caly Scantlin, RN, BSN, as the new Home Health of the Ozarks and Hospice of Care director at TCMH.  Scantlin previously worked in medical surgical for four years and for the past year at home health and hospice. She will provide leadership and oversee all aspects of home health and hospice. 
“We are excited to have Caly on our team in this new role,” Owens said. “We are confident she will do a tremendous job leading the home health and hospice team.”
Helania Wulff, TCMH director of physician recruitment, detailed current recruiting efforts. A family medicine physician who intends to practice obstetrics as part of a future practice will visit the hospital in October.  
Wulff mentioned that a trip is planned with Tricia Benoist, MD, family medicine and obstetrics physician to visit two family medicine residencies in Wichita, KS in September.
“We are also actively seeking an additional internal medicine physician,” Wulff said. “Screening interviews are ongoing with potential candidates.”
According to Wulff, interviews for additional mid-level providers are also in progress. 
Present at the meeting were Tindle; Loveland; Pamperien; Gettys; Owens; Wulff; April Crites, quality/risk management director; Bill Bridges, emergency services director; Jonathan Beers, MD, chief of staff; Renina Pearce, medical staff coordinator; board members, Joleen Durham; Steve Pierce; and Allan Branstetter.
The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is Tuesday, September 27 at 12 p.m. in the hospital board room. 
 
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