
TCMH Adds Mountain Grove Native to Physical Therapy Department
March 30, 2018
Rose Vanderbilt is March Employee of the Month
April 6, 2018Texas County Memorial Hospital board of trustees heard from John Hammons, legal counsel for the county hospital, at their monthly meeting on Tuesday.
“We have two concerns that need to be presented today,” Hammons said. “The first one is the safety concern for both the providers and staff at the hospital, and the second one is the financial concern that is burdening TCMH.”
Hammons’ concerns both involved recent interactions with the Texas County sheriff’s department.
Wes Murray, TCMH chief executive officer reported to board members in October that the county had planned to release prisoners in the hospital parking lot. The prisoners would seek their own medical care, and the county would not have financial responsibility.
“Despite the negative impact for the county citizens and TCMH, the Texas County sheriff’s department has continued to release prisoners in the TCMH parking lot and hospital to let them seek their own care,” Murray said.
Murray described two recent “dangerous situations” that the providers and staff at TCMH have had to deal with.
Recently the Texas County sheriff’s department had custody of a prisoner who was in violation of their parole, but needed medical attention. Deputies brought the prisoner to TCMH and once the prisoner was admitted to the hospital, they were immediately released from county custody.
“We cannot force these patients to stay in the hospital,” Murray said. “Several times they have walked right out of the hospital doors, back onto the streets of our community. These patients have criminal records that include assault, breaking and entering and burglary just to name a few.”
The second situation putting TCMH providers and staff in harm’s way was a patient with multiple counts of violence in their history. The patient came to TCMH after assaulting their care giver.
The patient spend almost four days in the TCMH emergency department.
The patient was violent while they were at TCMH and hostile towards all of the health care professionals who tried to provide care.
In addition to the hostile behavior towards the providers and staff, the patient did several thousand dollars’ worth of damage to the emergency department and the equipment while they were here.
“These are prime examples why this topic of concern was addressed today,” said Murray.
Murray explained that the sheriff’s department wants TCMH to call the department when a prisoner is released from the hospital so the patient can be taken back into custody. To alert the sheriff’s department would be a violation of federal privacy laws that protect everyone.
“Workplace violence is eight-times more likely to happen in a hospital setting than any other facility,” Murray said. “The safety of our providers and staff comes first, and I will help ensure that it stays that way.”
Murray noted that the recent incidents are just a couple of the “many examples of concern” that TCMH has for the safety of their providers and staff.
“The financial concern that is burdening TCMH is also something that needs addressed,” Hammons said. “We have a letter prepared to send to the county, but it requires board approval to do so.”
The letter carefully explained that TCMH will be providing emergent care only going forward to the prisoners of the Texas County sheriff’s department. TCMH will no longer be providing routine outpatient care to the prisoners.
“The county owes TCMH approximately $220,000, and we have to stop the hemorrhaging somewhere,” stated Murray.
The board of trustees unanimously approved the letter to be sent to the county at their meeting.
In other news Murray reported that TCMH has three new physicians that will begin working at TCMH later this summer. Doug Crase, MD, family medicine and obstetrics, Jason Loden, DO, general surgeon, and Teresa Loden, DO, pediatrician. All three physicians and their families visited the area recently, making plans for relocating in a few months.
Murray reported that influenza-related visitor restrictions at TCMH have ended.
“On March 12, the visitor restrictions were released since the number of cases has dramatically decreased,” Murray said.
Linda Pamperien, TCMH chief financial officer, presented the financial report for February.
“Overall our revenues were down for the month, but our inpatient volume was slightly higher than our budgeted expectations,” Pamperien said. “Hospice and home health revenue were also up slightly for the month due to picking up some additional patients.”
Overall expenses for the month of February were down $377,464, according to Pamperien.
TCMH finished the month of February with a negative bottom line of $145,510, and a year-to-date bottom line of $75,847.
Pamperien told board members that the 2017 audit of TCMH was conducted in March. Auditors from BKD, LLC in Springfield will present TCMH’s final numbers from 2017 at the April board of trustees meeting.
Present at the meeting were Murray; Pamperien; Amanda Turpin, quality management director; Doretta Todd-Willis, chief nursing officer; Rachel Davis, director of public relations; board members, Jim Perry, OD; Jay Loveland; Omanez Fockler; Janet Wiseman; Mark Hampton; guests, Hammons; William Mahoney, CoxHealth Representative; and Laura Crowley, Texas County clerk.
The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is Tuesday, April 24 at 12 p.m. in the hospital board room.