GRANTS, N.M. – The Cibola General Hospital Corporation approved the sixth amended board bylaws on April 26. The CGHC is registered as a New Mexico non-profit corporation.
The previous bylaws were signed in 2014 by Board Chairman Ron Ortiz and Secretary Nestor Griego. The 2021 amended bylaws were posted last week at https://cibolahospital.com/.
The electronic posting did not include signatures by Board Chair Eileen Chavez Yarborough or Chase Elkins, secretary/treasurer.
Few changes were made to the 2021 bylaws. The fifth amended bylaws, adopted in 2014, included 23 pages; the sixth amended version, approved at the April 26 meeting, had 24 pages.
The board has additional flexibility in scheduling the annual meeting. But other responsibilities remain the same including posting a notice seven days in advance of regular meetings which must be held at CGH or a designated site, and board members are not paid but may be reimbursed for approved expenditures. The same five committees report to the board. These are the Professional, Performance Improvement, Joint Conference, Human Resources and Recruitment, and Technical and Facility committees.
Two differences between the 2014 and 2021 bylaws are the requirement to file a written request with the hospital administration to obtain a copy of the approved minutes. The change in accessing min utes includes language that allows CGH to charge “a reasonable fee” for providing paper copies. Both the fifth and sixth amended bylaws allow inspections of the minutes by county officials. The other change is the implementation of teleconferencing and videoconferencing. This meeting protocol, which is designed to protect participants from potential exposure to COVID-19, is a direct result of the pandemic.
Hospital officials had made procedural changes earlier this year prior to the board’s approval of the 2021 bylaws. CGH altered how community members obtain information about the regular monthly board meetings.
“Moving forward, I’m putting together a summary for the public of the meeting and other hospital serv ices/activities. I will post the summary via social media and on the ‘What’s Happening Email’ I have recently restarted,” said Marketing Director Cynthia Tena in a March 25 email.
(Editor’s note: The summary of the April 26 meeting was not accessible on social media prior to the May 5 publishing deadline.)
April regular meeting
The board dealt with numerous topics at last week’s session including the amended bylaws, reports by the chief nursing officers, medical staff, Jim Hermes, chief financial officer, CEO Thomas Whelan, and the finance committee plus information from QHR (CGH contracts with Quorum Health Resources, a consulting firm) along with the marketing update, and the executive session that dealt with personnel matters, strategic planning, and legal issues.
County and CGH The Cibola County Commission and CGH signed two contracts late last year. One is the lease agreement which identifies the county as owner of the real estate and buildings at two sites, the Cibola General Hospital buildings, 1016 E. Roosevelt Ave., and the Cibola Family Health Center (known as the clinic), 1423 E. Roosevelt Ave., Grants.
The other contract was the operating agreement which identifies the responsibilities that the nonprofit corporation will oversee while managing the hospital and clinic.
Information on previous meetings
Agendas and approved minutes of monthly meetings, July 2020 through February 2021, are available at https://cibolahospital.com/ under the Public Info tab. The site also includes the March and April 2021 meeting agendas but does not provide approved minutes for those sessions.
The sixth amended bylaws and the Memorandum of Bylaws are available on the Public Info tab.
Upcoming meeting
Monday, May 24, boardroom, 1016 E. Roosevelt Ave., Grants, 5:30 p.m. Public access is available via teleconferencing, according to CGH officials.
Visit cibolahospital.com or call 505-287-5208 for additional information.