GRANTS, N.M. – The Cibola General Hospital Aug. 24 session highlighted the COVID-19 outbreak in the three area prisons. Hospital staff have continued ongoing meetings with prison officials about the recent epidemic. Officials are ensuring that safe practices are followed within the prisons, during prisoner transport to CGH, and prison staff members remain with the patient during medical appointments, according to hospital CEO Thomas Whelan.
“We will continue to monitor [the situation] and to hold correctional officers accountable for safe practices,” said the CEO.
Whelan reported that the Practice Manager who had been scheduled to begin in October decided to remain with her employer in Texas. Laboratory Manager Leon Escutia has begun his duties. Dr. Snow Petersen, general surgery, began seeing patients last month. Dr. Abdul Ahmed, orthopedic surgery, recently toured the Bonita Clinic facility, which is near the hospital on Roosevelt Avenue in Grants. The visit was part of the surgeon’s preparations for opening his practice in October.
CFO report
Jim Hermes, CFO, acknowledged that decreased revenue, the costs of staffing hospital and clinic entrances, incident command expenditures, providing COVID clinic services, and TriCore Reference Laboratory testing fees all contributed to the net revenue loss for March, April, May, June, and July. April had the largest revenue loss at 56.6 percent and by July the loss had dropped to 18 percent. The hospital reported $1,744,415 in grant funding reserves as of July 31. There were 2,347 hospital visits plus 1,641 clinic visits, which totaled 3,988 for the year-to-date statistics; there were 79 patient accounts receivable. The number of cash-on-hand days had dropped from 328 to 322 as of July 31.
Nursing report
The Emergency Room reported an increase in the number of people seeking behavioral health services along with additional cases of alcohol/substance abuse “during these unprecedented times,” reported Co-Chief Nursing Officers Glenna Losita and Marie Atencio. The ER provided care for 722 people and the Operating Room had 48 patients in July. The hospital hired three additional nurses and currently relies on three contract nurses: the co-CNOs have requested one additional medical surgical nurse. The hospital had zero surgical site infections, 1.6 percent re-admissions, and 29 “fallfree” days [days without a patient falling].
The Cibola Family Health Center has scheduled a Flu Pod at the clinic for Friday, Sept. 25.
Board positions
The hospital has filled the three board seats that were vacant earlier this year. Kevin Branum, Joan Gilmore, and Ron Ortiz have joined the nine-member board in the past few months. The August meeting, which lasted approximately three-and-a-half-hours, included two executive sessions: the first one focused on the risk report, credentialing, compliance, and board education; the other closed session was for the CEO evaluation.
CGH utilized Webex to conduct the Aug. 24 meeting and the public participated via telephone. Administrative staff and board members viewed presentations through the computer screen-sharing feature.
(Cisco Webex provides on-demand collaboration, online meeting, web conferencing and videoconferencing applications, according to webex.com)
Next meeting
Monday, Sept. 28, boardroom, 1016 E. Roosevelt Ave., Grants, 5:30 p.m.
Call 505-287-5301 or visit cibolahospital.com for additional information.