At the Oct. 15 meeting of the Ellsworth County Medical Center board of directors, Tina Davis, director of the rural health clinic, presented a population health strategic plan based on the Community Needs Assessment results from 2013, 2016 and 2019.

She said mental health worker Josie Wacker is investigating grants and other information to improve service to the community for substance abuse.

The hospital recently received a Youth Mental Health First Aid education grant. Up to 65 people can be accommodated. The hospital staff, local schools and churches have been invited to take part. If not all 65 slots are taken, then participants from surrounding counties will be invited.

Davis has also established a new system to identify facility maintenance issues and has established a project management process.

In other business:

• Andrew Bair, chief executive officer, met with the providers to discuss four issues — working both the clinic and the emergency room simultaneously, clinic scheduling, making rounds including staff from other disciplines in the hospital such as the pharmacist, and the inequity of provider compensation. Bair said he is working to complete a functional compensation model and hopes to present it to the board in December.

• It was reported that in September ECMC scored low on patient experience scores for the emergency room. Normally, the hospital is in the top 10th percentile for patient perception of care. The high volume of returned surveys is being reviewed in more detail to determine why the low scores were given.

• There were multiple improvements of patient satisfaction in the clinic, which is a step in the right direction.

• The hospital has a 22 percent readmission rate. The goal is 11 percent. With a chronic care manager and social worker now on staff, it is anticipated that will change customer service positively moving forward.

• Steve Berkhouse, the new chief financial officer, said he received a telephone call from the bank on his second day on the job alerting the hospital someone was fraudulently using the hospital’s bank account. The bank did not honor the fraudulent checks and that account has been closed. Another has been opened to replace it.

Berkhouse said the hospital had a gross revenue for the month of $1,869,835, with a yearto-date total of $5,683,320.

Berkhouse said BKD, the hospital’s auditing firm, is close to finalizing the hospital audit.

• Bair said Ellsworth City Administrator Scott Moore and members of the Ellsworth American Legion have asked him to be part of a community center project. He said the group is trying to determine who would be interested in participating in this effort and in determining the feasibility of the project.

• The hospital plans to donate $5,000 to the Smoky Hills Charitable Foundation’ Make A Match event. That donation will be matched 150 percent by Dane G. Hansen Foundation for $7,500 on top of the hospital’s donation.

• After a five minute executive session to discuss the quarterly risk assessment, the board approved the document.

• After a 75-minute executive session Sept. 24 to discuss non-elected personnel during a special meeting of the board, approval was given to increase Bair’s $170,560 annual salary by two percent, plus give him a 5 percent bonus on his previous year’s salary.

The next meeting of the ECMC board of directors will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, in the hospital conference room.