KVHD update: flashback to mammography, ECHO, time frame, ACHD who would lobby?

Kern Valley Healthcare District Controller, Barbara Figueroa, shown here, at the February board of directors meeting. Figueroa shows a lot of control during meetings, rarely saying more than is necessary, such as during the finance committee meetings, where she reports on the contracts and contractors who move through and sometimes over the hospital.
Victoria Alwin, the newly elected Chairwoman of the board, now leading board, sits next to Dr. Robert Gross, DO, who is now the treasurer, ask questions of financial manager, Chet Beedle, who has repeatedly changed the story on the financial position of the district in the last year.

Beedle has gone from projecting moderate losses last year, to vilifying the community for going to the Emergency room for things that are less than emergent, like colds and coughs.

I asked Beedle why collections on a three year old bill for $8.10 went out to the community recently. He argued that we have to collect all the money we can.

But we all know that should have been done three years ago.

Tim McGlew, our new CEO, can say he was not here during the strenuous and crime filled times, but Beedle cannot.

He has been here for a long time. Now I would like to know what sort of report of his performance is being done?

Or did we do that three years ago, and don't want to spend the money to quantify the value of our financial program?

As I pointed out in the article regarding the Sierra Kings District launching it's attempt to get money out of a failed collections department, created a 40% and you're off the hook plan just to try and get as much money as possible.

Sandy Haskins, interim CEO for Sierra Kings, a much beleaguered rural healthcare district like our own (even had former CEO Pam Ott) came from a consultant firm called HFS and they have been working to bring in all the past collections.

We have yet to see or hear of anything like that going on at KVHD. We have yet to hear these kinds of things, called public information.

I'm asking for a complete screening of our financial department, which may cost money, but then could save money too if it began to run efficiently.

Kay Knight listens intently as questions regarding the costs of the hospital's annual trips to ACHD, Association of California healthcare Districts, which lobbies on behalf of rural and small hospitals.
There was a quote by a reporter that the costs for the ACHD meetings are over priced in this bleak economy. The quote was attributed to Marge Swendleson in the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper yesterday.

Now, let me ask, who is lobbying for this hospital? Bob Jamison? Brad Armstrong? Are they making trips to Sacramento with new ideas for the legislature? Are they writing letters to their representatives asking for grants to upgrade our equipment?

I'd say no is your answer there folks.

Check out ACHD website if you read the quotation out of the newspaper which is not actually a "local" paper. In fact, they are a corporation out of Arizona.

So, shop local. (as they like to say around here, not me, I don't say that. Others do though.)

Well, it was a real deal for Cimarron Cynthia as she came on board for the charity run helping the ECHO (Exploring Careers in Healthcare Occupations) program which is being hit by budget cuts and maybe even a misunderstanding of what this program is about, and other programs like it.

I'll begin by saying this program begins at the High School level and many of the students graduate having a job already at the hospital. They have reached a level of education that qualifies them as a nurse's aide once they transfer to Cerro Coso, where they can qualify as a nurse's aide or EMT.

For many students it's the beginning of a career in healthcare and for some that is as far as they go, using the experience to work while they pursue another career.

But many students get motivated and after working a few years as an aide or EMT, they move on to other specialized courses, possibly a higher level of nursing such as LVN or even an RN. Others go into management. (Uhum, yes they do)

It's an opportunity for younger students to get a head start on a career or even just higher level employment, but it could be lost in the strangulation that's taking place in education.

Cynthia Burciaga, a Texan I hear, had a group throwing pies for cash, and raised a bucketful of dough, where some will land right in the ECHO, echo, echo, program and the rotary club.

Burciaga, who has been working long hours as Chief Clinical Officer and Director of Nursing in the skilled nursing facility, added charity to her list of many things to do. She was talked into it by one of the mangiest, volunteer wranglers in the valley, Miss Jeanette Rogers.

Rogers will be wrangling us all up for the Heart walk coming up next week, where we will be required to exercise until it hurts our pocketbooks. And the money will go to the hospital where it will be used for...(still waiting on that answer)

During her time as regular Cynthia "the overworked" she has been plagued by worries from a community which never heard the truth nor an apology for what has happened in the nursing center, with the employees, the pharmacy and financially.

But we have a different situation there now, and it would nice if the media looked at the hospital in a fair way which would allow us to understand these mistakes happened in the past and a few new administrators and staff are working on trying to get things in order.

The quote of the night by Burciaga regarding bringing in new services: "We have to work on getting one thing right before we move on to other services."

Bravo, the reality check. Good to hear it.

Finally, kudos go out to the winners of employees of the year. They won a Canadian health insurance plan and a pie in the face.

Not really....

The 2009 Employees of the Year are:
Clinical Services – Colleen Brun, RN, Emergency Department
Support Services – Monica Spradling, Housekeeping
Manager of the Year – Mike Miller, Plant Operations Manager
Each of the individuals above received a check for $100.00 and a 4-day cruise to Baja Mexico. (And none have returned. Hmm?)

And finally, yes, here's an answer to the mammography question and my response: When the mammography unit was purchased, the Foundation purchased a used motorhome to house the mammo unit in an effort to make it a ‘mobile’ unit. That never really worked. The story that I got was that there were problems with the unit being mobile and the need to re-calibrate each time the unit was moved. Anyway, the motorhome was recently donated back to the Foundation who did indeed sell it. The mammography unit was not sold.
My response: I have heard about the mammography situation, but was told so many different stories I never understood. Now, I had heard about the unit being mobile, therefore requiring calibration, but really, did they have to move it once it was understood this would happen each time?
And the second story, more feasible, was that there was not enough patients to warrant keeping a tech full time. Again, that doesn't necessarily hold water or saline, as there could have simply been times where a tech was available, like anything else.
Then there was a shortage of techs, and on and on.

Now, I have to ask a few obvious questions regarding the situation. Okay, we let this sit idle for whatever number of years, and I'm assuming that there would be some missed out upgrades, so is the unit ready to be housed in a unit, room, where it can be used? We don't have dialysis, but we could have mammography in a jiffy.

See if the hospital suddenly starts using the equipment, drops a grand or two to make it go rrrrrr again, and has a tech in there part time running the thing, it's going to look bad, but at least something will occur which could make quite a bit of money. Equipment sitting around not making money. Much like the lull with the heart equipment. The foundation had that purchased and gathering dust pretty fast.

Question, is there anyway for me to just look at the paperwork surrounding the purchase of the unit and the type of unit it is? And who serviced the unit? And how did the mammography department do in the numbers? Did we write off, depreciate, or recalibrate the numbers?

Surprising there has been a lot of women pushing me to get this answer. None of the answers made sense to them and I have to agree.

I'll let you all know what I find out, finally...