North Big Horn Hospital doing well financially

North Big Horn Hospital District is doing well financially, as was discussed at the first board meeting of the year on January 16.
On the financial side, North Big Horn Hospital District CEO Eric Connell said that overall income was $182,000 compared to a budget of $118,000, so the hospital is coming ahead financially.
The board approved the monthly payables, which is all the checks that had been written that month, Connell said. There are no issues or financial concerns to note, he said.
An update to the board charter was made to allow up to three board members to participate on the finance committee. While all board members are invited to the committee, there must be three or fewer board members on the committee so that the meeting is not considered to have a quorum, in which case the discussion would be a public meeting.
Previously, only one board member participated on the finance committee in an “ad hoc” position.
In the clinic, the hospital is working on improving same day appointment access. Also, the hospital was able to maintain JoAnn Walker as their operating room manager, which Connell was pleased with.
“That was huge; we are excited about that,” Connell said.
The board approved the employee professional development plan, a plan to help employees feel encouraged, understand goals and expand their careers, Connell said.
The hospital has been very busy dealing with patients sick with COVID, the flu and other respiratory illnesses in the winter season, Connell said.
The hospital approved a bid from Groathouse Construction Inc. to remodel the hospital’s laboratory for $577,000. Of the four bidders, Groathouse Construction Inc. was the lowest bid. It is the third time the hospital has submitted bids, and they got much better results from this bid submission.
The State Loan and Investment Board is providing a $214,000 grant for the hospital to fund this project, Connell said.
The board discussed the mission and vision statements of the hospital. While nothing was formally approved, the board decided to better incorporate the idea of sustainability in their mission and vision statements and come up with a final statement at a later date.
The board said they wanted the hospital mission statement to convey that the organization would be strong generationally, operating with stability from one generation to the next, Connell said.
As a final matter, the board approved a $13,306 bid from Pryor Mountain Electric to replace exterior lighting for the parking lot and the buildings with new LED lighting, which will both increase safety of the parking lot at night, as well as saving money on energy over time.