Andrew Bair, chief executive officer of the Ellsworth County Medical Center, gave a brief update on possible participation in the proposed Ellsworth American Legion Community Center Feb. 19, during the monthly meeting of the hospital board of directors.

“My recommendation now is we just do a feasibility study on it so we can see what we’re going to get out of it as a community and as a hospital,” Bair said. “Until then, we’ll continue putting our heads together and think about what we could put in there.”

Bair said he will continue to meet with a group composed of representatives from the Ellsworth American Legion, Ellsworth County Economic Development, the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce and Betty Johnson from Betty Johnson and Associates, who is communicating with the Dane G. Hansen Foundation.

In other business:

• Bair reviewed a Kansas Hospital Association publication on the importance of the health care sector to the economy.

“One thing that surprised me was that the health care industry has grown 90 percent since 2015,” he said, noting ECMC is the second largest employer in Ellsworth County.

Bair said ECMC is still locally operated and controlled.

“That is becoming less and less of a thing,” he said.

Bair said the document talks about how smaller health care organizations affiliate with larger ones to help with finances and the more difficult times.

“What has happened is sometimes those larger entities, once they’re affiliated will say it’s not profitable for us and we’re just closing,” he said. “That has happened a couple of times here in Kansas.”

Bair said it’s always best for a health care organization to keep local governance as long as it can.

“If you can no longer stay open and seek affiliation, you’ve got to be very careful who you affiliate with,” he said. “One with a very similar mission.”

Bair said ECMC is not there yet.

“But I would say it was very in vogue about 10 years ago for all these places to affiliate, trying to draw in more services. That’s the goal. You just need to be careful.”

• Bair said he recently met with a possible physician candidate who is originally from Salina.

“He would not be available for a couple of years, but we’re still going to pursue him, I think,” Bair added.

• Steve Berkhouse, chief financial officer, said gross revenue from operations totalled $1,977.025, compared to budgeted gross revenue of $2,050,312.

“That’s the highest we’ve had in the five months that I’ve been here,” he said.

Year-to-date, gross revenue is $12,886,934, which is 10.2 percent under budgeted revenue. Operating expenses for January totaled $1,813,519, compared to budgeted expenses of $1,539,174. Total operating expenses for the year are $10,972,158, compared to budged expenses of $10,708,543.

ECMC experienced a gain in revenue in January from the 340B discount drug program of $88,794. Year-to-date, the gain has been $596,196 from the program.

• ECMC is hosting two courses to bring greater awareness to the community about mental health and suicide prevention. The courses are Mental Health First Aid and Assist Suicide Prevention. The Mental Health First Aid course will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, in the hospital’s administration building conference room. The Assist Suicide Prevention course is a two day course that will be scheduled sometime in June. Both courses are in partnership with K-State Research and Extension and Central Kansas Mental Health.

• Bair is planning to schedule a two-day board strategic planning session for late March. He hopes to have a time when board members, the hospital executive team and as many providers as possible can review where ECMC is going in the future.

“We had a strategic planning session last year,” he said. “I thought it was really good.”

The session will feature an environmental assessment – including the community and political pressures, the competitive market, what is happening inside ECMC, and the Rural Health Clinic. Also, possible expansion opportunities will be considered and a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis done. Financial assumptions would also be finalized for the budget year.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth County Medical Center board of directors will be at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, in the hospital conference room.