Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community
Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review
For Pay Period Ending April 27th
If European tradition marks May Day as the beginning of summer, then I am all in for that, and I am glad we are there. Other traditions have May 1st as a meaningful celebration for workers. And that certainly resonates for us in healthcare as our annual celebration commences in a few days with Hospital Week. So this week calls for a welcome to summer, and a nice green beginning, thanks to recent rains. And also a big Thank You for YOU.
It has also been a good week in that we have heard back from our visiting physicians of last Sunday, and I think we did a good job in piquing their interest about our quaint little town and a nice hospital team. We must be patient as they visit other sites, but I do think we are still in the game! More to come as things evolve.
Since my last report, our Board has approved the replacement of our patient call system / code blue system, as well as an enhancement to our digital security system, which will afford many new features for after-hour lockdown and surveillance abilities. We are very hopeful for the approval of our application for the annual Kansas Tax Exemption Program to help fund this rather expensive project. The Board also authorized our purchase of a new replacement Blood Analyzer for our Laboratory. We should all feel proud of our ability to stay abreast of new technologies that enables our hospital to stay ahead of the obsolescence curve. Recapitalization is a very important component for the health of Critical Access Hospitals! So thanks to our Board for recognizing such!
For some reason, I feel compelled to remind everyone that inflation IS taking its toll on most facets of our economy…we all feel it at the grocery store and when we have appliances to buy, or tires, or drugs, or batteries, or shoes, and so on and so on. It is really impacting all businesses as well, as those same supplies, service contracts, insurance, and labor that must be purchased are costing us all much more than 2-3 years ago. Pressures on bottom lines have never felt more real…yet if we remain innovative and smart about how we go about shopping for values in our needed resources…then I think we can relieve the margin pressure a bit. But we must each be cognitive of deploying smart buying practices! We cannot afford to plan poorly, run out of things, and have to pay premiums for essential items. This is my lesson for the week – please plan ahead and use our ever ready tools (smart phones for instance) to find where to buy our resources as efficiently as we can! We still need to use our Purchasing Department to authorize our buying commitments, but we can all help them in finding the best ways to replenish our shelves, and help our dollars go further and keep what we charge for our services under wraps.
I again give my special thanks to all of our caregivers who make our patient’s experiences here as good as they can be! And do have a great week! See you at our Post Derby Employee Party this Saturday Night!!
Kevin Leeper, CEO