“Where do we go from here?” North Shore Hospital Director Kimber Wraalstad asked hospital board members after she ran down a long list of reasons why the hospital and care center needed renovating, citing inefficiencies in how the building is laid out. Wraalstad said the nurses’ stations need revamping, labs are too small and there are problems with privacy issues in patient rooms in the Care Center. More waiting space for families is needed and there is need for a lot more computer stations and outlets that aren’t currently available or have been cobbled together to make do…among other things.
“In general our building is a silo, not efficient and effective. We are just one big maze, a labyrinth,” said Wraalstad speaking to the hospital board at its November 1 meeting.
The board has spent the past two years discussing possible upgrades and last November hired Rebecca Lewis from DSGW Architects to come up with phasing and construction costs of a possible facility project. Last month Lewis made her presentation to the board and said the “heart” of the facility is unifying the nurses station. She said that her plan included eight phases that would stretch from 56-67 months and have an estimated cost range of $12 to $16 million.
Wraalstad gave a brief history of the eight projects and renovations that have occurred at North Shore Hospital since 1958, and added, “Hospitals are a work in progress. Health care is always changing and we have some needs, but how would you like to like to go about them?” she asked.
One way to increase revenue at the facility would be to upgrade it and take advantage of products like telemedicine that could alleviate (at times) the need for patients to drive to Duluth for check-ups, Wraalstad said.
“Part of my goal as administrator is to assess our abilities and figure out how to increase our revenues,” Wraalstad said, adding that many of the upgrades would allow more procedures and better care to be offered to patients.
But none of this comes cheap, and as Board Member Howard Abrahamson noted, “We don’t want to cause another uproar like the one caused by the community center.”
Board member Tom Spence said he didn’t think the board could come to any kind of consensus “in 15 minute segments” at regularly scheduled board meetings and asked the board if they would like to add one more meeting per month to talk only about facility upgrades, cost and phasing, if that is in the mix at all.
“We need to have a clear vision of what we need before we go to the community with this. We have a lot of work to do before we ask for the community’s input,” Spence said.
After some discussion the board agreed with Spence and added a second planning and discussion meeting each month.
The first hospital board meeting will be November 30 and start at 9 a.m. and it will be open to the public.
When asked about potential bonding for such a large project, Wraalstad said that both Moose Lake and Cloquet hospitals have received USDA small rural hospital loans at a fixed rate of 3.5 percent.
Moose Lake is at the beginning of their project and Cloquet at the end of theirs, said Wraalstad, saying the money to pay for the loans would be found after the hospital’s yearly tax deductions are figured into the mix, therefore eliminating the need to bond.
When Yvonne Gennrich was asked why her staff needed an outside firm (Pope & Conner) to conduct training, Gennrich replied that due to late filings for Medicare claims in the years 2011 and 2012 the hospital had lost revenue, and she wasn’t about to see that happen again. Ever.
“I’m not proud of that,” said Gennrich, who promised that her staff would file all of the claims in a timely manner in 2013.
Gennrich said changes in the billing system resulted in an increase in the age of Medicare claims and said her staff needed Pope & Conner’s assistance to understand the changes. She also said staff restructuring will result in claims being submitted in a timely fashion.
“The goal for working with Pope & Conner is to prevent the write-off of claims due to missed filing deadlines, and the process should allow all the staff to be able to work on any claim,” Gennrich said.
Gennrich also said that when she recently conducted a yearly review of a newer employee and asked how things were going, the employee said fine but added that there had been 10 major changes in the business office in the last year.
“That’s a lot of changes,” Gennrich said.
Kimber Wraalstad said the Radiology Department recently had two technologists resign and that until new employees can be found, a temporary technologist familiar with the facility will cover the hospital’s needs. Wraalstad said the positions have been advertised and said, “We hope to return to permanent full staffing by the end of January.”
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