Omanez Fockler Honored for Years of Service at TCMH

Texas County Memorial Hospital Administration honored Omanez Fockler for over 60 years of dedicated service to the hospital and community at their board meeting on Tuesday.

Ms. Fockler began her career at TCMH as a registered nurse in March 1959, shortly after the hospital opened in November 1958.  After more than 40 years, she retired from nursing in Spring 2000 and then was asked to fill a board member vacancy in Fall 2000.  She has served in that capacity for over 21 years.

“I can’t think of anyone else that has given more extensive service to this hospital than Omanez Fockler,” Wes Murray, TCMH chief executive officer, said.

Murray mentioned that the boardroom will be named after Ms. Fockler. A plaque will be installed outside of the boardroom, along with pictures of Ms. Fockler displayed on the inside.

Murray made introductions to the board of the new directors. Our new home health/hospice director is Melanie Evans, a 14-year veteran of TCMH.  Helania Wulff, public relations director, replacing Rachel Davis.  Jeff Gettys, healthcare foundation director, replacing Jay Gentry with his upcoming retirement.

Linda Pamperien, TCMH chief financial officer, presented the financial report for the month of February.

“Overall revenues were down $702,795 from our budgeted expectations,” Pamperien said. “Inpatient volumes were up $99,931 however our outpatient revenue took a significant hit and was down $816,958.”

Pamperien noted that the Emergency Room volume was down compared to last year by 22 percent. “For February, our Emergency Room had 653 visits, where normally they are closer to 800-900.”

Bad debt for the month of February was $370,550.52.

Pamperien mentioned that the contractual adjustments for the month were in line with expectations, coming in at 63.3 percent for the month and 61.1 percent year to date.

Pamperien added that our overall expenses were down notably this month.  “We were under budget by $454,734 or 14.5 percent.  These numbers reflect that we are managing our expenses well.”

TCMH ended the month of February with a negative bottom line of $299,524 and year-to-date loss of $260,451.

Pamperien reported that the auditors from BKD, LLC of Springfield were on site last week to provide the annual field audit for TCMH.  The results of the audit will be presented at the April board meeting.

During his administrative report, Murray mentioned that TCMH has administered almost 2,400 COVID-19 vaccinations.  The hospital has gone 19 days with no inpatient COVID patients.

“Our positivity rate continues to trend downward with current rates being below 3 percent,” Murray said. “TCMH had a 37 percent COVID positivity rate when we were at our highest.”

Murray mentioned TCMH is anticipating another mass vaccine clinic in April.

“If we administer a minimum of 1,000 vaccines, we will qualify for assistance from the National Guard,” Murray said. “In past clinics, the National Guard was a tremendous help in facilitating a smooth event for our community.”

Murray also reported that a few changes were made to the visitor policy effective immediately.  The pediatric patients who are 17 and under will be allowed to have both parents or guardians, labor and delivery patients will be allowed two support visitors, and end of life patients will be allowed 4 visitors.

“We can’t get too lax with our visitor policy as the new COVID variant strains are 50 percent more contagious,” Murray said.  “We have to minimize exposure to protect our patients and staff.”

Murray reported on the current roofing project for the main hospital and two annexes, which is scheduled to begin towards the end of April.  It is projected to take 180 days for completion.

“During this time, there will be disruption in the parking lots,” Murray said. “We will do our best to manage this with our patients, visitors, and staff.”

In new business, Ms. Amanda Turpin, TCMH chief nursing officer, mentioned the health quality innovation network (HQIN) partnership for onboarding and assessment for infection control, quality improvement, and case management at no cost to the hospital.

Turpin discussed quality data reporting through Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

“The reporting has been postponed for the past year due to COVID,” Turpin said. “CMS is now opening up programs that have been suspended as they feel this is our new normal.”

Ms. Helania Wulff, TCMH director of public relations, mentioned physician recruiting efforts are ongoing, with an onsite visit scheduled in early April for a potential internal medicine physician.

“We are in the process of actively searching for a Family Medicine physician with OB experience to fully staff our Obstetrics department,” Wulff said.

Murray mentioned a recent visit from Senator Karla Eslinger.  They discussed the Medicaid cost report settlement, as it has been an ongoing issue with funds owed to TCMH from 2016 – 2019.

“We recently learned the 2016 disbursement was approved,” Murray said. “We will be receiving $506,000.”

“It was refreshing to speak with Ms. Eslinger and see her desire to learn about healthcare,” Murray said.  “She plans to keep in touch and represent our area to Jefferson City.”

Murray reported that TCMH received approval for a FEMA grant to replace a 25 year old generator.  Bids for this project are now being accepted and reviewed.

“The FEMA grant will provide $93,750 of the $125,000 total generator cost,”  Murray said. “Mr. Gentry, has done a great job obtaining this grant and Mr. Gettys will keep that going.”

According to Murray the Employee Retirement Plan continues to grow to over 12MM.

“We have 103 more employees participating in the retirement plan since last year,” Murray said. “There seems to be a better understanding of this great benefit with 287 employees now contributing.”

Murray added that Give Ozarks Day – Rally for Recovery, presented by the Healthcare Foundation would be accepting online donations this Wednesday, March 24^th.  These donations would be used to support the TCMH Medivan, a non-emergency transportation service to the community.

Present at the meeting were Murray; Pamperien; Turpin; Helania Wulff, public relations; Dr. Linda Milholen, chief of staff; Courtney Owens, quality management director; Renina Pearce, executive assistant; board members, Jim Perry, OD; Omanez Fockler and Allan Branstetter.

Board members, Jay Loveland and Steve Pierce were not present at the meeting.

The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is Tuesday, April 27 at 12 p.m. Due to current social distancing restrictions in place as a result of COVID-19, the meeting will take place via teleconference. To attend the meeting, please call (417) 967-1236 and you will be placed into the teleconference meeting.