By Rich Wicks | Times Vedette
During the June 26 meeting of the Guthrie County Hospital Board of Trustees, CEO Chris Stipe explained the expected flow of funding for the hospital’s planned expansion project. He explained that the flow may be puzzling at first glance.
“You should be saying, ‘Why do we have so much cash in the first year of construction?’ So, they will sell bonds that will generate all the cash we need to pay for this construction, and that will happen, we think, in the first part of the next fiscal year,” Stipe said. “They’ll reinvest those proceeds, and we will get interest on that while that money sits until we use it to pay for the construction.”
Danielle Lauzon reported on quality measures and gave data.
“For May, we had three complaints and one grievance,” Lauzon said. “They all had appropriate follow-up done, and no trends identified. Patient satisfaction for May was really good.”
Chief Financial Officer Brandon Johnson reported on the hospital’s finances for the month of May. He reported that the hospital saw an operating loss of $448,000 in May, and he reported on some of the factors that led to the loss.
“It was not a huge census month, and we had three nurses go on vacation, and several patients with high needs,” Johnson said.
Stipe shared his overview.
“Not our best month. Expenses were high, revenues were a little low, but still, for the year, we’re kind of where we budgeted and pretty similar to last year, year-to-date,” Stipe said.
Foundation Chair Dennis Flanery reported that registrations for the fundraiser golf tournament are full.
Stipe shared that Chief Nursing Officer Sandy Atkinson will be retiring and thanked her for her years of service.
The next regular meeting of the trustees is set for July 24 at 4 p.m. The public is welcome.
