North Shore Health Director Kimber Wraalstad had some excellent news for the hospital board at their December 19 meeting. She informed the board that the North Shore Care Center was named to the Leading Age Minnesota Safe Care for Seniors Honor Roll Action Levelers.
“North Shore Health (NSH) has completed our five-step Action Plan in a timely manner and is ready to move to our next steps,” said Wraalstad, who thanked NSH Safe Care for Seniors Champions Malorie Brazell and Mary Edson for their continued work on the project.
North Shore Health will participate in a strategic financial, operational review conducted by Stroudwater Associates. Nationally recognized critical access hospital expert Eric Shell and his partner Dan Givens were at NSH on December 18 and 19 to gather information. During their time at NSH, Shell and Givens met with department leaders to discuss their department operation. Also, present during the meetings was Brock Slabach, vice president of the National Rural Health Association.
The cost of the evaluation was $45,000, with the USDA picking up 80 percent of the cost and North Shore Health responsible for the remaining 20 percent. Once Shell and Givens have compiled a report, they will come back and present their findings and suggestions. Shell also presented “Strategies and Innovations for Rural Hospitals” to the members of the board and medical staff.
2020 Budget
Finance Officer Vera Schumann presented the 2020 capital and operating budget. The budgeted utilization is based upon 2019 projected utilization and was reviewed in detail with the Department Managers. Patient service revenue is based upon the budgeted volume. Schumann reviewed deductions from revenue in detail. Medicare Cost Reimbursement uses the current cost to charge ratio. Operating expenses were reviewed by category and are projected to increase by 4.80 percent from the 2019 projected expenses. The board adopted the 2020 budget as presented.
Meditech Human Resources payroll module
The Meditech Human Resources (HR) and payroll module implementation has been going well with TimeClock Plus going live on December 3. The first payroll using the Meditech Human Resources/Payroll system will be paid on January 3. Wraalstad said the process to fully implement this module continues to go well.
Serenity Garden
A volunteer group who has taken on the Serenity Garden project has been doing a great job, said Wraalstad. The Serenity Garden, which will be developed over three to four years, will be the area between the hospital and the care center. A design group is reviewing design choices to submit to contractors to obtain bids. Wraalstad said the volunteer group has written a letter of intent to the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation and has been invited by the foundation to apply for a grant to assist with funding the garden.
Dark Skies
On December 16, a walking tour of the parking lot and adjacent streets was done to evaluate the lighting. A shield had been placed on one of the parking lot lights to see how effective it was in damping down the light emitted while still providing proper light to the parking lot.
Conference and CALS
Hospital board members Justin Mueller and Kay Olson will be attending the Minnesota Hospital Association 2020 Winter Trustee Conference scheduled January 10-12 in Brooklyn Park.
North Shore Health hosted a Comprehensive Advanced Life Support (CALS) course on December 3-5, said Wraalstad.
The CALS curriculum addressed broad educational needs for doctors, advanced practitioners, nurses and paramedics working in rural, remote emergency departments. Attending the CALS course for North Shore Health were five physicians, five nurses, and one paramedic. Nine other participants came from different areas of the state, and one person came from Montana. Wraalstad said participants and instructors stated that the facilities at North Shore Health worked very well for the training.
Strategic planning
The hospital board will continue with one-hour strategic board discussions following their regular meetings in January, February, March, and April. Greg Ruberg will facilitate the discussions with the purpose to review board governance, frame the future, identify potential issues, develop possible strategies to address issues, formulate plans to execute the strategies and develop specific action steps to carry out the board’s policies.
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