Votes to Sell Land on Candy Lane, Discusses Revenue Cycle Improvements
McDonough District Hospital's Board of Directors voted 5-1 at its monthly meeting held Oct. 19 to approve a resolution authorizing the sale of hospital district land at Candy Lane and Grant Street in Macomb to Jackson and Lauren Kane for $82,800.
Board Chair Dan O'Neill described the property as two acres. No one spoke during the public hearing on the sale, which opened the meeting.
Lauren Kane, thanked the board "for considering that and for your patience with the process."
"She and her husband have a grand plan for that property," O'Neill said. He did not describe the plan.
Board member Ryan Riggins asked whether the board had already voted on the sale. O'Neill said it had. A hospital staff member said the board had previously agreed to, or voted on, the price, and the resolution was a separate action.
Members Seth Minter, Kathy Newman, O'Neill, JoEllen Pensinger and Riggins voted yes, with Jere Greuel being the only ‘no’ vote.
After the vote, Greuel raised a point of order and asked whether the sale required a two-thirds vote. Kim Thorman, administrative assistant, said the board has eight members, a quorum is five, and six directors were present.
Radiation Oncology's Future Interim CEO Wanda Foster said HSHS has decided to sell the radiation oncology building three doors west of the hospital at 401 E. Grant Street. She said hospital officials planned to tour the suite later in the week with two other regional CEOs "to look at any opportunities that there may be there."
Foster said the hospital hopes the current provider can stay. She believed he has practiced there since 2009.
O'Neill said medical staff strongly favor keeping the service.
"If somebody comes up with a few million bucks, we'll be more than happy to accommodate them, but it's a very expensive undertaking," he said.
Dr. Mary Kathleen Lockard, who gave the medical staff report, said many physicians have patients who use the service and the general consensus is that "it would be a loss for the community to lose that." Foster concurred and said the cost makes it uncertain whether buying the operation or a new machine is in the hospital's best interest.
Other updates
• Hospital officials continue meeting with the hospital's EMS group about ambulance service and hope to reach a resolution within the next month.
• The hospital is in discussions to provide wound care at Culbertson Hospital, starting at a half-day per week.
• Demolition of the MDH Medical Arts Building, the former office space east of the hospital, began Monday. Foster said she did not know of a plan for the site beyond clearing it.
CEO Search
Pensinger, who reported for the CEO search committee, said the search firm will finish interviews Monday, Oct. 26. She said the firm plans to present its top eight candidates to the committee on Nov. 2.
The committee will cut the list to five for two-hour interviews, then to three finalists, Pensinger said. Finalists will visit the hospital and Macomb in December.
Pensinger said the committee plans to bring the board a final recommendation the week of Dec. 14.
She said every candidate has rural hospital leadership experience. The willingness to relocate to the Macomb area is a non-negotiable for the committee.
Revenue Cycle Team Reports Wins
Vice President Brittany Doll, who leads the hospital's revenue cycle steering committee, said the committee has been celebrating a few "wins" lately.
First, the number of days between a patient's discharge and a final bill dropped from about 11 or 12 in July to 7.4 last week.
The dollar value of discharged but unbilled accounts fell from $1.55 million on Monday last week to about $387,000 that Friday.
Doll reported that Terry Hostert and the group have added new error types to its weekly registration error report so staff can catch inaccurate patient registrations before bills go out. She said an inaccurate registration leads to a denial, and fixing a registration up front is easier than working a denial afterward.
She said the hospital is near the final steps to hopefully post coding positions to bring coding back in-house from an outside vendor, which she called "very expensive" and which offers little support for the local economy, or quality control on the hospital side.
Provider coding education is also coming, Doll said. "Hopefully, by the end of the year, we'll at least have the kickoff." An outside company will train 29 providers on both the clinic and hospital sides in new coding regulations and specialty coding. Doll said it is "really nice when we can come together as a group" to work collaboratively and support physicians.
"I'm finally starting to feel more confident since July.
Employees are involved and bringing ideas forward," Doll said. She is also getting more messages and emails asking whether she knew about one issue or another. "And to me, that's a sign that people are invested," she said.
The board also approved an updated banking resolution on a 6-0 roll call vote, then went into closed session to discuss personnel and collective bargaining matters. No action was taken.
The next meeting will be held Monday, Nov. 16 at 5:30 pm in the MDH Board room.
