The pulse 5 25 18

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May 25, 2018

The Pulse

Your regular check up on SCKMC activities Share your thoughts, story ideas, and comments by e-mail to claytonp@sckrmc.org.

Editor’s Note: This will be my final edition of “The Pulse”.

After almost 17 years with SCKMC and 216 issues of the newsletter, I am off to new adventures. I want to personally thank each of you for your interest and support of the medical center throughout the years. The future is bright for the healthcare of our community and I for one am excited to read the next chapter of this great organization. With that in mind, I thought I would use this final edition to take a look back at some of the top articles during the publications eight-year run.

Best Wishes! – Clayton Pappan, Director of Marketing.

SCKMC to Form New Clinic with Merger SCKMC announced today that Summit Clinic will be merging with the hospital to form a new medical practice, South Central Kansas Clinic, LLC. SC Kansas Clinic includes Dr. Kamran Shahzada, Internal Medicine; Dr. Rhonda Green, Family Medicine; Dr. Eric Thomson, Family Medicine; and Angela Ziegler, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse.

Under the merger all of the above mentioned providers and their staff will become employees of or contracted with SCKMC. The medical center has been transitioning towards the hospital employed physician model for several months.

“It is a big move, however we are probably behind much of the rest of the State in terms of the employment of physicians.

We are hopeful that this demonstrates our commitment to the healthcare of the community, and that we are interested in seeing growth and development of primary care services locally,” said Steve Perkins, SCKMC’s CEO. SC Kansas Clinic will operate at the location of the current Summit Clinic, 515 N. Summit. Published May 30, 2014

Project Progress

Sales Tax Question Approved for November Ballot

Construction continues to move forward, as the facility’s structural steel, wall framing, and roofing is erected according to schedule. Request for proposals have been sought for architectural firms in developing a site master plan. This plan would act as the blueprint for the entire acreage as the land is further developed. Published April 23, 2010

The City Commission approved on July 15th a request to allow the citizens of Ark City to vote on a proposed one-half cent, ten year sales tax initiative during the November election. In response, Steve Perkins, SCKMC’s CEO submitted the following letter to the Arkansas City Traveler: The SCKMC Board of Trustees and Administration extend our sincerest “thank you” to the City Commission of Arkansas City for their action regarding a sales tax question that could benefit the hospital. We appreciate the Commission allowing the citizen voters to express their position through a vote.

In the coming weeks and months SCKMC will provide our community with information regarding our operations and our vision for how the proceeds could further benefit our citizens.

The prior support of the voters ensured the continuation of hospital services within our city. If not for the voters support in 2008, in all likelihood the old facility would have been closed by now and not replaced.

As pledged in the last voter initiative, SCKMC has added services and medical specialties. We continue to work to retain and build the community’s health resources.

The recent development of the South Central Kansas Clinic (as an integral part of SCKMC) ensured retention of physicians in our community. Our vision for the use of additional sales tax support is to aggressively recruit and add more physicians to our community and continue to expand upon services. – Steve Perkins Published July 25, 2014

SCKMC Begins Move to New Facility Next week marks the start of the official move to the new hospital. The move is a combined effort of professional movers, equipment vendors, staff, and community volunteers. Kings Moving will be on site beginning Monday to start transporting equipment and supplies. Monday and Tuesday will be used to move non-patient care areas and department offices. During this time the entire hospital will be cleaned and disinfected.

Wednesday, the bulk of the ancillary departments will move.

Thursday we will transfer all patient care areas to the new facility, and begin receiving new patients as of 7:00 a.m.

Published March 11, 2011.

SCKMC Announces New CEO The Board of Trustees has reached an agreement for the hospital’s new CEO. The employment was unanimously approved during their monthly meeting, held last week.

“We are pleased to announce that Virgil Watson Jr. has accepted the position of CEO,” said Board Chairman Dr. Nick Rogers following the meeting.

Watson, a native of Arkansas City, attended the University of Kansas, receiving a bachelors degree in elementary education and a masters of public and health administration degree. He held numerous administrative positions at Arkansas City Memorial Hospital between 1977 and 1996…

In 1996 Watson was hired as CEO for Sumner County Hospital District 1 in Caldwell Kansas. He remains in that role today, but has announced that he will be leaving to take over the CEO responsibilities at SCKMC. Watson was one of three finalists who were interviewed this month for the position.

“Out of the many applicants we reviewed, (the Board) had three strong finalists to consider for the CEO position. After extensive interviews and consideration we are pleased with the outcome,” Rogers said.

The board reported that Watson will assume duties beginning in January. Published Dec. 26, 2014

The Doctor “Roboto” Will See You Now “Dr. Roboto,” the new telemedicine technology allowing patients and nursing staff remote access to physicians 24hours a day, is now being used to admit patients to the medical center’s med/surg and ICU departments. The service officially began on Monday, but the community had an opportunity to see the equipment during several live demonstrations held on July 30th.

Close to 100 people in total attended the sessions which were presented by Dr. Brian Hunt with Sunflower Telehospitalists LLC. Dr. Hunt is one of three hospitalist physicians who are now interacting with SCKMC patients and staff through Dr. Roboto. Pictured: Dr. Hunt demonstrates the new telemedicine equipment during a open house. Published August 7, 2015

Landrush a Success The first annual SCKMC Landrush is in the books. The 5K obstacle race raised over $9,000 with 135 runners competing.

Top Overall Male winner was Jason Braun of Burden with a time of 21:39.

Top overall female was Olivia Eves of Ark City with a time of 26:11. Published Sept. 4, 2015 (edited for space)

City Gives SCKMC Loan The Arkansas City City Commission approved in a 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday to loan SCKMC $275,000. The loan will cover a shortfall for the 2016 interest payment on the general obligation bonds used to finance construction of the new hospital. A similar amount was loaned to the hospital in August to cover a shortfall in the 2015 principal payment.

SCKMC officials had anticipated a $300,000 payment from CMS for successfully implementing electronic medical records into their patient care practices to arrive before the end of 2015. However, changes in the Federal program have delayed the payment which is now expected in early April.

That money would have gone towards the bond payment.

Since the initial loan, slower than anticipated returns on 2015 initiatives such as the 340B pharmacy program, sole community hospital status, and hospital based rural health clinic status, along with increasing account payables have had hospital administrators and Board of Trustees members expressing growing concerns towards the long term ability to make the payments.

As a result, the hospital Board of Trustees approved a motion at their last meeting for SCKMC to approach the City Commission for permission to seek an additional sales tax for support of the bond debt service. There is currently a one-half cent sales tax in place through 2019. The sales tax raised approximately $850,000 in 2015 towards the $1.9 million annual payment.

Hospital officials discussed the option of a second sales tax at the Commission meeting. It was determined that representatives from both organizations should meet within the next two weeks to review all options. Based upon the results of that meeting, a formal request for community support may be made at the next Commission meeting.

Published Feb. 5, 2016

SCKMC Restructures ICU When hospital officials stood before the City Commission in February they presented several cost reducing measures as a result of failing to make the payment for the construction bond of the hospital. One of the items listed at that time was “restructure of advanced care services.”

Earlier this week SCKMC enacted its plan to restructure both the hospital’s intensive care and step down units. In a statement released to all hospital staff, SCKMC Chief Executive Officer Virgil Watson stated that the changes were a result of a “history of underutilization” with the department unoccupied 91% of the year.

“We are currently evaluating options for developing elective ICU care and step-down models, based upon past utilization trends and the organization’s current financial position. All ICU staff have been offered other positions within the organization,” Watson said.

With the new format all patients who present to SCKMC requiring critical care will be transferred to accepting facilities.

Scheduled events, such as post-operative surgical patients, will still be provided care through the ICU, and “step down” care patients will be admitted through the medical surgical department.

The medical center’s administrative staff see this as a step in the right direction for a facility that has failed to break even for several years. However, it could be a step that is eventually reversed should the need for local advanced care services increase. A need that Watson believes could be impacted by the arrival of internal medicine and cardiology physician, Dr. Willie Posey. Dr. Posey began practicing at SCKMC less than one month ago.

Published April 15, 2016

Sales Tax Passes

Direct Care Clinic to Open January 1st

The SCKMC sales tax initiative appears to have passed with an eighty-percent approval rating. Official results for the one-percent sales tax will not be available until June 2nd.

The tax increase, which has preliminary votes of 1,885 for and 467 against, has been discussed for the last several months as a way to guarantee the majority of the hospital’s $1.9 million annual bond payment related to the costs of construction of a new facility which opened in 2011.

Since March hospital staff and volunteers have held public meetings, and gone door-to-door to inform the public about the hospital’s current financial situation and what the plan is to correct it.

“The community overwhelmingly supported this sales tax because they understood the value that having a local hospital brings to all of us. We, as a hospital staff, can’t thank those who voted in favor of the tax enough. You have placed your faith in this organization, and we plan to do everything possible to earn it,” Pappan said. Published 5/27/16 (edited)

SCKMC is planning to bring a new concept in health and wellness to Cowley County through a new clinic which will open in January. The clinic will be located on the medical center campus and is offered through a partnership with Revere Healthcare Solutions Inc. (RHS). The clinic will be providing direct access to primary care with a strong emphasis on preventative healthcare.

“It’s a concept different from what we are used to. What we are used to now is that you wait until you’re sick to go to the doctor. With this concept we are going to be proactive and start looking at wellness as the central core of our healthcare delivery going forward for our employees,” said Virgil Watson, SCKMC’s CEO. The clinic is employer driven, meaning that it is designed to be offered as a benefit to a company’s employees with no out of pocket deductibles or office visit copays for individuals that are covered through the program.

Published Nov. 10, 2017 (edited for space)

Geriatric Psychology Unit On Schedule

Warrender Trust Offers $100,000 Donation

Progress continues towards an early January opening of a new geriatric psychology unit at SCKMC. The unit was approved by the SCKMC Board of Trustees during the November meeting, and a special follow up meeting on Dec. 8th approved an agreement to partner with Quality Health Care Inc. (QHC) to manage the unit.

Ark City will be the fifth location for the Wichita based, privately owned company. QHC will be responsible for staffing as well as clinical program implementation for the unit.

The new geriatric psychology unit will be located in the former wing of the hospital’s family birthing center, also known as the OB unit. Since the decision to move forward with the new unit, OB has been moved to an underutilized section of the facility and the old birthing rooms are currently being modified to accommodate geriatric psychology patients.

Published Dec. 9, 2016.

A significant donation is being used as the springboard for SCKMC’s physician recruitment efforts. The medical center’s Board of Trustees recently approved an agreement by the Robert Warrender Trust, granting the hospital up to $100,000 for the purpose of physician recruitment.

Warrender, a long-time teacher and resident of the area, passed away in 2007. The challenge grant fund was established on behalf of his Trust by Wayne Hamilton, trustee of the Warrender estate, through the Legacy Regional Community Foundation. For every two dollars donated to the fund, the Warrender Trust will contribute one dollar.

SCKMC Board Chair Carol Hearne expressed to the group that the purpose was not to bring a single physician but to develop a strategic recruitment program for the community.

“This is not just a ‘one and done.’ This will be an ongoing campaign for continued recruitment,” Hearne said.

Published March 16, 2018 (edited for space)

SCKMC Merges with Winfield Medical Arts The SCKMC Board of Trustees voted Tuesday in favor of entering into a merger agreement with Winfield Medical Arts.

Prior to the unanimous approval of the resolution, Virgil Watson, SCKMC’s CEO, addressed those in attendance.

“This is a monumental achievement for (SCKMC). We think we have put a process together that will move the hospital forward,” Watson said.

One change will be the Medicare re-designation of Winfield Medical Arts from a standalone rural health clinic to a hospital based rural health clinic. Both Watson and SCKMC CFO Holly Harper anticipate WMA’s hospital based rural health clinic status will allow the clinic to continue to be financially self-supporting following the merger.

“Part of the advantage of a rural health clinic is they have better reimbursement when attached to a hospital. Of course, that is the driving force behind the decision,” Harper said.

The decision to merge has been discussed for several years between the clinic and hospital leadership. The transition is scheduled to take place on October 1st .

Published Sept. 15, 2017 (edited for space)

Board Looks to Continue Sales Tax The SCKMC Board of Trustees unanimously approved Thursday to proceed with plans to extend a one-half cent sales tax currently set to expire in 2019.

Watson cited the growing amount of uncompensated care, partially driven by the State’s resistance to expand Medicaid as the major issue hampering the hospital’s ability to significantly improve the operations while also securing the bonded indebtedness tied to construction of the facility.

“If we had expanded Medicaid, that’s about $1.7 million dollars (annually) that we aren’t getting. Therefore somebody has to make up that difference, unfortunately that pressure is put on the citizens of this community,” Watson said.

Board attorney Otis Morrow is working to finalize wording for the sales tax question so that it may be presented to the City Commission at their next meeting. It is the Board’s preference that the election be held by mail-in ballot prior to the August primary election. Published April 27, 2018 (edited for space)