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As of December 7, 2022, Karla Pankow officially assumed responsibility as the Ambulance Director for North Shore Health.
Karla is a National Registered Paramedic (NRP), Critical Care Paramedic— Certified (CCP-C). She has worked at North Shore Health on a casual basis since April 2022.
“This will be a hybrid position with Karla working remotely at least 50 percent of her time,” said North Shore Health Director/CEO Kimber Wraalstad.
“She works with Essentia Health Emergency Medical Services and is a 911 Emergency Dispatcher for Pine County. In addition, Karla is an Emergency Medical Service Instructor at Pine Community and Technical College,” noted Wraalstad.
Pankow has an associate’s degree from North Dakota State University in Paramedicine and a bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University in Business and Marketing.
In other news, Wraalstad reported that Doug Montgomery will work with North Shore Health as an interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO) until a permanent replacement can be found for Paul Goettl, who resigned to take another job in the area. Paul has agreed to work with the hospital on a casual basis to provide support and assistance during the transition, said Wraalstad.
Doug Montgomery is a senior manager for Eide Bailly and previously served as a CFO at a hospital near the Twin Cities.
“Between Doug, Paul and excellent team members in the Business Office and Revenue Cycle areas, financial reporting functions will continue uninterrupted,” said Wraalstad, noting that applications for the job have been accepted and interviews are being planned.
Salary update
Workers at North Shore Health will receive more money under the new labor agreement. North Shore Health offered a Letter of Agreement to the SEIU recently to modify the 2023 salary in the current labor agreement. The old agreement called for workers to get a 2.5 percent wage adjustment. North Shore Health proposed to increase that to 4.5 percent for 2023. Also, four additional steps were added to the top of the scale, increasing the maximum reimbursement for each position. Wraalstad said the SIEC brought this new offer to their membership who voted to accept it.
Beginning January 1, 2023, North Shore Health will no longer include pre-employment drug testing in its hiring process. Many health care organizations are doing away with the pre-employment drug testing to stream-line the hiring process,” stated Wraalstad.
“Often the results of the drug test are the last information we are waiting to receive before a new employee can begin. In the last ten years we have had a total of five positive drug screens all of which were for marijuana. Marijuana can stay in the system for up to 90 days. While pre-employment drug testing will be discontinued, we will continue with “for cause” employee drug testing, Wraalstad said.
Property and Auto Insurance Renewal for the hospital property, boiler and machinery, and auto insurance for January 1, 2023, with Travelers Insurance is $57,463, a seven percent increase over last year’s rate of $53,343. Wraalstad said many organizations in Minnesota and South Dakota are seeing insurance increases of 20 percent with higher deductibles for 2023.
As of December 14, 2022, 73 percent of the employees have been vaccinated for influenza. Director of Nursing Troy Bachelor continues to encourage employees to get their vaccinations for influenza.
October 2022 financial report
Paul Goettl presented the October 2022 financial report at the board’s last meeting. Patient days in the Acute Hospital were five days or 62.5 percent more than budget with inpatient revenue for the month $3,000 less than the budget.
Swing bed days were 19 less than budgeted with revenue $2,000 more than budget.
Care Center days were 217 less than budgeted and revenue $98,000 less than budget. The Care Center continues to have a pause on admissions due to staffing. The current census is 27 residents with ten open beds. The Care Center Interdisciplinary Team is evaluating a revamp to allow options for new admissions while keeping the census at 28 until staffing increases.
Outpatient revenue of $1.5 million was $160,000 more than budget. The volumes in Emergency Department, Radiology, CT, and Ambulance were above budget while Rehab, Lab, Colonoscopy, and Home Care volumes were less than budget.
Gross Patient Revenue was $54,000 more than budget…. Year-to Date Net Loss of $110,000 was $33,000 less than budgeted. FTSs were 92.9 and days’ cash on hand was 297 days.
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