Improvements continue at Seneca Hospital
At the July 20 meeting of the Seneca Healthcare District board of directors, board members listened to a mixture of positive and negative information for their consideration.
With the resignation of board member Bob Caton in May the board needed to fill the unfinished portion of his term.
Dr. David Walls was selected as the new board member and he will fill the duties of vice president that accompany the board position.
During the public comment portion of the meeting one member of the public expressed a recent experience that he considered inadequate treatment on the part of the attending emergency staff and inappropriate behavior from other staff.
Another member of his family also related an incident from some time back that she was not happy about.
Board President Dana Seandel thanked both for their comments and indicated that the information would be used to help improve the service and atmosphere at the hospital.
Another member of the public commented that, “Virtually all hospitals have lapses in service and/or cordiality from time to time, but that doesn’t mean they are a bad hospital, it simply means they are staffed by human beings, none of which are perfect.”
Hospital administration then related that this recent event has been followed up on and corrective action has been taken.
The encouraging news for the hospital includes the continued positive financial status that allows for increased staffing and recruitment of more specialty services.
The hospital is continuing to pursue a nurse practitioner or physician assistant as a full time provider for the walk-in clinic.
They are also looking for an ultrasound technician and an additional registered nurse.
One recent addition to the staff is Brian Doharty who has come on board as the information technology manager.
TK Trumpf was named as the full-time clinic manager. Trumpf has been at the hospital for some time and has already been responsible for a portion of clinic oversight duties prior to this appointment.
With mandates requiring the use of specific billing codes, it appears that Seneca is conquering the bureaucratic maze with success as it received a positive report from Healthcare Resource Group.
The report stated, “Continual improvement to your overall AR [accounts receivable] was seen in June. Cash collections were strong, ending at over $1.1M, or 108 percent of net revenue. Total AR days decreased from 52.3 to 50.2 and is an all-time low for SHD.”
This portion of the report ended with the statement, “With SHD’s historical and season averages for revenues in summer months, we anticipate continued strong collections over the next 90 days.”
