Staff writer
Hospital District No. 1 of Marion County Board of Directors approved two large purchases of equipment and a large construction contract.
Hutton Construction uncovered asbestos while working on the St. Luke Hospital renovation project.
“When you have a 60-year-old building it’s almost guaranteed to have asbestos,” Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Armstrong said. “The asbestos that was found was only in the floor tiles.”
Armstrong submitted a bid from B&R Construction of Lenexa for $34,950 for asbestos removal. Even with the asbestos cleanup, Armstrong said the construction project was still under budget.
The first piece of equipment that was approved was a new network server. Armstrong said St. Luke Hospital’s current server is over seven years old. Its lack of speed and storage space were the reason for the update. The board approved the purchase of a server for a cost of $39,210.
A nursing call system will also be updated. A wired system will be placed in nearly every room. It will allow for voice communication, instead of just flashing a light and ringing the nurses’ station, and keeps a computer record how long it takes a nurse to reach a patient.
The updated system will cost $49,932, although the first bid chief running officer Linda Kannady received was more than $62,000.
The hospital also approved hiring Angie Martin to give the hospital a patient-billing review. Her services will cost the hospital $950.
“One misstep will cost way more than that,” compliance director Joe Pickett said.
Reports
Pickett submitted himself to a compliance assessment report from QHR, which the board approved.
Compliance is the process that tracks patients from the moment they step in the hospital until they have paid all of their bills.
“It’s such an unusual program because it covers so much,” Pickett said.
Pickett took the board systematically through the survey he completed that detailed the hospital’s compliance process. He said he answered 91 percent of the questions with a yes or a positive answer.
However, he got to the end and marked the last question — “Do you think your hospital has an active and effective compliance program?” — with a no answer.
“I’m never happy because I feel it’s changing continuously,” Pickett said of compliance. “I’m always reactive.”
Board president Martin Tice persuaded Pickett to change the answer of the final question before the board approved the report.
In another Pickett presentation, he outlined the need for an executive compensation policy.
Although CEO Armstrong and Chief Financial Officer Bev Reid are paid by QHR, St. Luke Hospital would be legally liable if other expenses were investigated by congressional hearings, investigative reports, and increased Internal Revenue Service Monitoring.
“If CEO and CFO would be found to be over compensated it would be your liability,” Armstrong said.
The type of expenses that would be investigated would be first-class travel, travel for companions, housing allowance, payments for business use of personal residence, health or social club dues, discretionary spending accounts, provision of personal services, and non-qualified retirement plans.
Pickett explained that it was not a necessity for the board to create a policy because of St. Luke’s status as a government institution and a for-profit company.
Board member Judy Reno was in favor of a policy.
“A policy has a procedure and it’s comforting to have a procedure,” she said.
Tice was against the idea of a policy.
“When you have a policy, you open yourself up to litigation when you don’t follow it,” he said.
An Executive Compensation decision was tabled until next month.
In other business:
- Physician Richard Brown has started at the physician clinic. He will work Wednesdays and Thursdays in the clinic and the emergency room. “He’s working basically a 48-hour shift,” Armstrong said. “When you work our ER you’re not up all night.”
- Kannady said Molly Rhodes is picking up shifts on the weekends at St. Luke Hospital. Rhodes normally works as an ER nurse in Wichita.