Sierra Kings welcomes Adventist Health to Reedley in special election

Voters in Reedley change the course of their hospital's future

The Reedley Exponent reports the ailing Sierra Kings Hospital which has struggled through bankruptcy since late 2008, has recovered with the help of an overwhelming majority of voters who were unified in favor of leasing the facility to Adventist Health.

The local paper reports that voters may not have come out in droves, but their minds were made up they wanted change, and the numbers speak for themselves. The Exponent reported the initial count at 2830 for the measure, and only 116, voted against the new lease agreement.

No technical information was provided in the article regarding how this will specifically change the hospital's fate, but the Exponent reported a favorable, positive response to the news by an employee and a hospital director who see a future of happy employees and pleased patients come August when Adventist Health begins to take the helm.

History lesson

The history of the Sierra Kings district is directly related to the Kern Valley Healthcare District by way of former CEO, now elder abuse charged, Pam Ott, who stepped down from her job in May of 2007, at KVHD when the nursing center almost closed and went on to become the CEO of Sierra Kings District Hospital.

When Ott was charged with elder abuse late in 2009, board members at Sierra Kings began a bankruptcy and it has been reported in the Exponent, via interim CEO, Sandy Haskins from HFS, that monies from a General Obligation bond voters had approved for hospital expansion, were possibly misused.

And it was reported that again Ott and Sierra Kings now former CFO, were allegedly able to gain access to employee pension monies. Unfortunately, because of the bankruptcy, certain employees were unable to regain their retirement funds. No charges have been filed on Ott regarding these matters as of this time.

New day for Sierra Kings

After riding out the storm as HFS, a well known and respected (though a KVHD board member made some serious complaints) healthcare financial company, often associated with ACHD, (Association of California Healthcare Districts) as their material appears on their website, worked to get the hospital to the point it may now have a chance to begin serving it's community again.

Sierra Kings, a public healthcare district similar to KVHD only in their human resources department and taste in board members, had a collective decision made by voters to allow this lease agreement to take place and allow them to continue to progress.

It's a tough time for hospitals, especially those who have been filched

We've all heard the ant and the grasshopper story, and who survived the nasty winter what and why. In an interesting article in the California Healthcare Foundation newsletter, five hospitals who were struggling attributed their continued success through strategies such as "sustained growth in patient volume," which KVHD Chet Beedle said was the key to success.

Why look at them now...they are being supported by a thrift store run by the Auxiliary which supports their ability to even afford a hospital bed or new equipment. That thrift has a "higher census" than the hospital itself. You just can't find a parking space either.

Those same Auxiliary members have done so much for the hospital that they got promoted to a voluntary workforce, costing KVHD nothing, and sometimes overstepping by putting these volunteers into jobs they should not have been doing: such as lifting patients?

The serious differences between KVHD and success

But the other two items in the article entitled "success under duress" are of more interest. "frequent and intense monitoring of expenditures and efficiency," which cannot come close to the imprudence as has been witnessed at KVHD with "time and material" contracts, use of registry and traveling nurses, paid housing, trips for management, as well as paying some of the highest rates to administrators in Kern county.

The nut and shell game that is called KVHD finance, has been problematic for not only the hospital's future which is on thin ice, as they recently acquired basically a monthly payment plan with Cal Mtg. for monies which will not sustain the district, and not produce growth necessary to have a future.

But the final strategy for success which keep these hospital's future much brighter is to divert "heavy investment in quality improvement initiatives."

Quality...qau' li' tee': Degree or grade of excellence.

For further healthcare articles go to the California Healthcare Foundation as many interesting articles can be found here.

http://www.chcf.org/publications/2010/09/success-under-duress-how-five-hospitals-thrive-despite-challenging-payer-mix


Reedley Exponent link
http://www.reedleyexponent.com/articles/2011/06/08/news/doc4deffb66a2ce1856510659.txt