Hospital board meets for final time in 2015 New CFO announced

by Eric Mullens
WALSENBURG —  The Huerfano County Hospital District Board of Directors met for their final session of the year on December 10, combining the November and December sessions as they usually do at the end of the year.
With a slight property valuation increase to $127,121,136, the district’s mill levy was adjusted upward slightly to 3.5 mills from the current levy of 3.499 mills.
During the meeting Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center CEO Todd Oberheu showed the board members preliminary designs concerning conversion of seven beds from Acute Care to Long Term Care on the hospital side.
Oberheu also reported to the board the ECW (electronic medical reports software) went live in the clinics in November and clinicians are pleased with the change although there are still some billing / coding issues which are expected to be resolved soon.  Meditech implementation is expected to begin in May 2016 and the IT (Information Technology) department continues to work to insure redundancy of connectivity and strengthen the signal connection between SPRHC and the La Veta and Outreach clinics.  
A recruiting agreement between the hospital and Jackson Coker has been implemented for the search for a family practitioner physician.  
Today a Studer coach is working at the facility to review nurse leader/patient rounding processes.  Studer is a medical management consulting group hired by the board earlier this year to help improve services to patients and raise employee productivity.  
In other business, Oberheu reported Lionel Montoya has been hired as the new Chief Financial Officer.  He begins his duties January 4 replacing retiring finance director Rick Corradino.  Montoya currently serves as CFO and interim CEO of a large primary care practice in the Glenwood Springs, CO area.
Susan Walker, a new nurse practitioner at the Spanish Peak Family Clinic was introduced to the board by Dr. Mike Moll.
Oberheu and board member Dr. Paul Coe attended a meeting at Parkview recently concerning the southern Colorado Management Service Organization.  There will be a follow-up meeting next month.
Spanish Peaks Veterans Community Living Center Administrator Marty Schlink reported the state department of public health and environment conducted their annual survey recently and eight citations were noted.  She said additional information has been provided from the veterans living center which could result in the deletion of two of the citations.  She also said a complaint included in the survey was unfounded.  “It is expected that each of the citations will not be significant in their scope and severity,” Schlink said in her written report to the board.  She said the state public health department’s Life Safety Survey, a part of the annual survey, will take place in the near future.