Newman Regional Health COVID-19 Community Briefing
NRH COVID Volumes:
- # of COVID inpatients – 1
- Cumulative # of COVID admission – 33
- Transferred directly from ER to another facility – 12; 11 to Topeka and 1 to Wichita
- Total deaths – 6 from Lyon County; 1 inpatient at NRH; 1 nursing home resident after discharge from NRH; 4 in Topeka
- Drive Thru # – 11-12 per day with just above 10% of tests resulting in positive cases
Currently in the process of turning one of our current patient rooms on 3rd floor into an ICU compatible room with camera availability.
After the drive through test collection site is shut down, patients will continue to be scheduled for testing and will be directed to park at Entrance F. They will call when they arrive at the facility and a staff member will greet them and escort them to the outpatient lab draw station for specimen collection. This process is to keep potential COVID patients from wandering through the facility, or running into other patients/staff.
ER and outpatient clinic volume is the main determinant of all other ancillary service volumes within the hospital.
Clinic volumes are back to about 90% what they were pre-COVID with approximately 111 visits over the last week compared to an average of 126 weekly patients prior to COVID.
Monday, June 10, will be our first total hip surgery since re-establishing elective procedures.
All services and specialties have been re-established, with two exceptions:
- Elective (non-urgent) procedures for patients under the age of 13 or over the age of 65
- Auxiliary – after completion of Phase III
Within the next 1-2 weeks, elective procedures for patients under 13 or over 65 will begin reopening.
Do not delay your health care needs – chronic care management remains vital
More important now than ever to give blood as the number of surgical procedures across the US increases and as communities being reopening resulting in more and more people being out and about with an increased risk for injury or accidents.
Discussion of attached timeline – COVID highlights from March-June
Cash position/Funding
- One of the larger grants of $4.5M from HHS included in our original calculation is still pending approval/receipt
- Organizationally, we don’t have to start paying back the $14M advance from Medicare until August and it’s paid back based on our billings from Medicare
Not COVID related…
- $10,000 grant from Capitol Federal Foundation for Becoming a Mom program
- Becoming a Mom program has been one of the most productive programs in terms of changing the care metric associated to preterm labor and the death rate of infants
- Heather Aylward, Director of Women’s Life Center, has been very proactive in receiving grants to help continue providing prenatal education to the community
- As we address these issues, we are now below the state average for infant death rate
- Pharmacy relocation – June 10th
- Newman Therapy Services project renovation to begin around June 15th – bringing these services on site to Newman Regional Health and no longer across the street. The project will result in increased square footage for therapies, including a more convenient space for the pediatric therapy patients.
- Dr. Alana Longwell – Chief Medical Officer; a part-time role within the hospital in addition to her other roles of Medical Director for the Hospitalist Program and Inpatient Rehabilitation program
- Ashley Edwards – Director of Ancillary Services in addition to her primary role of Pharmacy Director
- Jim Crump – Director of Cardiovascular Lab in addition to his primary role of Imaging Director
- CEO Succession Plan in process with internal candidates
The foundation of our hospital that will continue to serve us well is our Medical Staff. We have an outstanding group of physicians in this community. The quality of our Medical Staff from top to bottom is outstanding. The idea of “bigger is better” is not an adequate statement when referencing patient to physician care. We have the largest employed Medical Staff of any critical access hospital in Kansas.
The median operating margin for a critical access hospital in the state of Kansas is -10%. Kansas is the second lowest operating margin state in the United States behind Hawaii. Kansas not passing the Medicare expansion is a reflection of our operating margin.
Before COVID happened in March, Newman Regional Health was on track to beat budget for the first time in a long time. The potential is still there, but it’s definitely been a setback. We aren’t expected to reach that capacity again until mid-2021.
Thank you KVOE, for allowing us the opportunity to continuously update the community on happenings within the hospital and clinics during this time. We have been honored to participate in this partnership and discussion.