The Cook County North Shore Hospital Board has been holding a flurry of meetings in the last few weeks and months to discuss proposed renovations and to tackle budget planning
Contractors at work on remodel/refurbish plan
On July 31, 2014, the Cook County North Shore Hospital board of directors agreed to hire Boldt Construction to act as construction manager of the hospital’s $20 million remodel/refurbish project. At that meeting the hospital board asked Boldt about the process for naming a superintendent for this job. Boldt guaranteed that the hospital would be involved in the superintendent choice.
Roger Thieling, superintendent of the Cloquet and Moose Lake Hospital projects (and a Boldt employee) will act as superintendent for the pre-construction phase for the Cook County Hospital and Care Center renovations due to begin in the Spring of 2015. Thieling is winding his career down, however, he promised to assist whomever Boldt hires to head up work in Grand Marais and be on site up to two days per week.
Meanwhile, many of the project pieces are falling into place. Sam Parker completed the site survey work on July 30. David Bolf, Civil Engineer from Northland Engineers is working with John Geissler to obtain prices for the completion of a rock survey.
Eight input groups (many including hospital/ care center employees, administration, and family members of care center patients) have been established and are meeting regularly. Meetings have been scheduled for Lutsen and the Gunflint Trail to gather more information from the public about what it wants to see accomplished in the remodel, and meetings for Grand Portage, Hovland and Grand Marais are being arranged.
DSGW architects are on track the schematic design phase for the hospital/care center by the end of August, Kimber Wraalstad said.
Every aspect of the 16-bed critical care hospital and 37-bed skilled nursing facility is being looked at in the process that began more than four years ago.
Hospital levy to stay the same in 2015
The board reviewed a very preliminary draft budget for 2015. Vera Schuman, director of hospital/ care center finance, discussed the assumptions that are being used for the budget and the many current unknowns. The budget discussion led into the discussion of the preliminary levy. The board voted unanimously to set the levy at $800,000, the current levy amount.
On August 5 Wraalstad was informed that the Care Center had been selected as a Critical Access Nursing Home Facility (CANF). The Department of Human Services is in the process of calculating the rates, said Wraalstad, adding that the ECPN (equitable cost-sharing for nursing) match should reduce through this program.
Attorney General investigating Blue Cross charges
Wraalstad told the board that the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General had served many hospitals with a Civil Investigative Demand (CID), and Cook County was included.
A lot of financial details were requested, including Blue Cross documents and other contracts in the subpoena. Wraalstad said it took about 60 hours for her and her staff to gather the information requested, and the Assistant Attorney General has also contacted her with follow up questions.
The reason for the inquiry stemmed from complaints the Attorney General received from critical access hospitals in Minnesota about certain payment methodologies adopted by Blue Cross of Minnesota. The attorney general is looking at the issue of “Lesser Billed Charges” which states that payment will be the lesser of: (1) the EAPG (Enhanced Ambulatory Patient Groups) rate or (2) the hospital’s “regular billed charges”—the amount listed to the charge master.
Wraalstad said she would get back to the board when the Attorney General gives her the results of its investigation.
Background checks required for hospital workers
The Minnesota legislature revised Minnesota’s system for criminal background checks and from now on all new employees hired to care for the elderly, disabled and other vulnerable groups will have to be finger printed, and background checks have to be made, said Wraalstad.
So far no vendor has been hired to take the fingerprints and photographs, but, said Wraalstad, there has been a commitment that potential employees will not need to travel more than 40 miles to complete the requirements.
If the employee is willing to provide employers with their social security number, the employee will only need to be fingerprinted and photographed once, a “one and done concept,” said Wraalstad.
Schuman presented the June 2014 Executive Summary and financial report. In it Schuman said there was a gain in operations of $22,000 for the month of June and a yearto date loss from operations of $801,322. Counting non-operating income and tax levy monies, Schuman said there was net gain of $102,690 for the month. She also noted that there was an increase in emergency room visits for the month.
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