Share Downtown Clinic now open

The Share Medical Downtown Clinic is now ready to accept patients. Located in Suite J in the Alva Professional Building, the clinic will be staffed by Dr. Scott Burk M.D., who is an internist, Dr. Chris Burk M.D., who is a pediatrician, and Gwyn Holderby A.R.N.P.

Share Medical Center CEO Kandice Allen told the Alva Hospital Authority (AHA) trustees Tuesday that Steve Madrid P.A. has moved to the West End Clinic at the hospital to work with Bryan Nutter, A.R.N.P. Bryce Galbraith D.O. is also at the West End Clinic until his resignation Nov. 6.

Tuesday, Sept. 28, was the last day at Share for Erin Paige Krukenberg P.A. She is spending six months in Stillwater and then will be practicing as a dermatologist in Enid.

Allen said the hospital is moving to a central scheduler office for booking appointments at the two clinics and Urgent Care. This will remove some of the load from the front desk. She said the clinics were very busy in August and seemed even busier in September.

Dr. John Gregg began doing surgical procedure at Share Medical Center on Aug. 31.

The hospital has been doing “pretty well” on nursing staff, Allen said. Sometimes they have to move one of the floor nurses into the emergency room when the emergency room gets busy.

During August, the hospital had 46 patients admitted to the floor with a total of 152 patient days during the month. The emergency room saw 263 patients during August.

The hospital received two V60 High Flow/Bipap respiratory units to provide additional care to Covid patients. Allen said these had been ordered months ago. When Share Medical started seeing a lot of Covid patients, she and Director of Nursing Regina Wilson checked on the equipment and were told it had been back-ordered. One day, all available equipment was in use and the hospital had one new patient who needed respiratory help. They could not locate an available bed at another hospital. Luckily, the back-ordered equipment came in that day. Allen said she and Wilson cried because they were so relieved.

Allen offered her congratulations to Wilson who passed her Certified Emergency Room Nurse test. Allen said this test has a 60-percent pass rate, and Wilson passed it on the first try. She emphasized the certification requires a lot of study, saying it is “like studying for the (nursing) boards again.” Wilson was worried she would not pass so kept her efforts a secret until after she had passed.

In addition, Allen has completed the Rural CEO certification course through the National Rural Health Association. CFO Chris Lauderdale also did training with NRHA. Both said they made a lot of good contacts during the online training.

The AHA did not meet in August so they had two months’ information to cover. Trustees present for the Sept. 28 meeting were Chairman Jason Gaisford, Dr. Halah Simon, Dr. Kenneth Brown, Jay Randels, Dr. Bo Hannaford and Greg Bowman.

Financial Report

CFO Chris Lauderdale went through the written financial statistics presented to the trustees. As of Aug. 31, Share Medical Center had an operating cash balance of $117,139 representing 3.7 days of operating expenses excluding depreciation. Hospital accounts receivable balance was $6,380,281, an increase of $445,994 during the month. Lauderdale said this big jump was due to a large number of unbilled accounts. Because the hospital was so busy, they were behind in getting the bills out.

The accounts payable balance for August was $483,380, representing 34.9 days of operating expenses excluding the costs related to salaries, benefits and depreciation.

Hospital gross patient revenue for the month totaled $1,891,876, which was a $346,111 increase compared to the prior month. Total patient days for August were 140 compared to 100 in July. Total clinic office visits for August were 2,348 compared to 1,524 in July.

Hospital operating expenses excluding salaries, benefits and depreciation for August totaled $457,077, an increase of $34,641 compared to July. Hospital salaries and wages for August totaled $540,280, which was an increase of $33,767 compared to the prior month. Lauderdale said the jump in salaries was due to an overlap of resigning and new medical providers.

The hospital had a net loss for August of $98,561.

Share Convalescent Home had an operating cash balance for August of $293,762 representing 29.5 days of operating expenses excluding depreciation. The accounts receivable balance of $1,336,888 was up $29,007 compared to July. Accounts payable balance for August was $94,850 representing 28.1 days of operating expenses excluding the costs related to salaries, benefits and depreciation. The nursing home had a net loss for August of $22,619. Unlike the hospital, the nursing home still has some stimulus money available.

The Homestead retirement center had a net income of $5,655 for August.

Other Business

Trustees approved authorizing Kiki Bowden to request wire transfers. These are needed for the payroll system, and Bowden is now the human resources manager.

Several appointments and reappointments were approved. Appointed to courtesy staff are Matthew Thoms P.A. and John Gregg M.D. Reappointments to courtesy staff are Donny Wynn M.D., Jodilyn Caguioa-Aquino M.D., Shelby Hayes M.D., Trenton Mefford D.O. and Troy Smith O.D. Philip Self M.D. was reappointed to active staff. Justin Tate Endersby C.R.N.A. was appointed to allied staff and Brady Reed C.R.N.A. was reappointed to allied staff. Appointed to active staff were Scott Burk M.D. and Chris Burk M.D.

Trustees discussed overriding the provisional status for Dr. Scott Burk and Dr. Chris Burk so they can have voting rights and the ability to hold office immediately. Allen said current by-laws call for a six-month provisional status. However, since Share Medical has previous experience with the Burks and due to a shortage of physicians, they would like to waive the provisional status to make them full members of the medical staff executive committee. She said that way Scott Burk could be elected to the chief of staff position. The override was approved.

Share Convalescent Home

The plans for the new HVAC systems at Share Convalescent Home are 99 percent complete, said Administrator Kelly Parker. When the engineer finishes, the plans will go to the Oklahoma State Department of Health for approval. Once they sign off on the plans, bids will be sought.

Parker said on Oct. 6 Holder Drug is scheduled to give vaccine booster shots for the nursing home. He said staffing at the home is not as bad as the situation in some places.

Resident and family satisfaction surveys continue to be good. He hopes the 66 percent satisfaction with dining services (the lowest mark) will improve. He said the nursing home food carts are plugged into a wall outlet to keep food warm, but food tends to get overcooked. They are getting new food carts like the hospital uses that keep food warm through insulation.

During September, they have experienced some problems with pagers not going off, but they are getting that addressed. The problem caused some delays in answering resident call buttons.

The nursing home has been working on converting the lobby into a resident friendly space. A large-screen TV has been installed, and residents have been enjoying watching programs like football games and exercise shows.

Two residents will be named homecoming king and queen and will ride on Share Convalescent’s float in the NWOSU Homecoming Parade Oct. 9.

Like the hospital, the nursing home is concerned about what President Biden’s vaccination mandate will do to staffing. One nursing home employee has already resigned due to the mandate announcement. In anonymous polling of nursing home staff, 64 percent are fully vaccinated or intend to be fully vaccinated. Twenty-five percent are not vaccinated and will not become vaccinated, even if it means they cannot work in healthcare. Eleven percent will only become vaccinated if it is required to keep their job. Parker said those unwilling to be vaccinated are generally nurse aides and med-aides and generally are people under age 30.

The Homestead

The Homestead had one new resident move in during August and had two in September. All employee positions are filled.

Residents attended the first concert in the Northwest Oklahoma Concert series at NWOSU during September.

Parker said two air conditioning units have been replaced and two more are scheduled to be replaced. The Homestead is owned by the City of Alva and operated by the AUA. The city pays for new units while the Homestead staff is responsible for maintaining them.

A video of the meeting may be seen at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com.