Ellsworth County Medical Center is one step closer to in-house testing for COVID-19.

At the May 20 virtual meeting of the hospital’s board of directors, Danette Heinze, director of operations, said ECMC has received a $25,000 grant from the Kansas Healthcare Foundation to purchase two testing modules. The modules have enough testing supplies to allow the hospital to validate COVID-19 testing.

However, Heinze said it will take time to get enough supplies into the hospital lab to begin fully testing patients for the virus.

ECMC currently sends samples to testing facilities outside of Ellsworth County. The results are then reported back to the Ellsworth County Health Department by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

“Typically, we will not receive test results for a minimum of two days or longer,” Heinze said. “But by bringing the COVID testing into our lab, we will now be able to produce COVID results in as little as 45 minutes. Having this capacity here at ECMC is a huge win for the community.”

In other business:

• During a discussion of how hospitals across the nation are faring during the COVID-19 crisis, Andrew Bair, chief executive officer, said ECMC was fortunate to receive a $1.8 million loan from the Small Business Administration.

“Bigger hospitals didn’t get that,” he said. “A lot of them are going through a lot of trouble. In fact, unless you are in a hot spot, chances are your (patient) volumes are way down — just like us. Our volumes are down.”

Bair said hospitals in other parts of the nation have announced layoffs.

“Beaumont Hospital in Detroit actually closed their whole hospital,” he said. Bair said there is a lot of misun

Bair said there is a lot of misunderstanding of how these hospitals make money and whether or not they are obligated to stay open.

“We stay open to the degree that we can, but if you can’t, you can’t,” Bair said.

“People think what’s happening in hospitals is that we’re overloaded — we’re wall-to-wall with very ill patients — and that’s not been the experience, generally, across the entire nation.”

• Bair said board member Deb Hyman’s term expires in June.

“Deb has been a tremendous contributor during her two terms on the ECMC board of trustees,” he said. “Additionally, her clinical background has been invaluable over the years.”

Bair said the Ellsworth County commissioners would appreciate any recommendations for a new hospital board member.

• Approval was given to the initial appointment of Dr. Jeremiah Kempke as a consulting physician in endocrinology. The reappointments of six other providers was also approved as presented.

• Approval was given to revisions presented during a policy and procedure review of radiology and laboratory policies.

• Steve Berkhouse, director of business operations, said ECMC had a gross revenue from operations for the month of $1,590,009, compared to the budgeted gross revenues of $2,050,312. He said revenues lost from the COVID-19 pandemic were nearly $677,000 in April and $181,000 in March.

Berkhouse said the $1.8 million Payment Protection Loan which the hospital was awarded by the federal government will be forgiven if the hospital uses the funds for payroll and other allowable expenses.

He said the hospital was also awarded $4.2 million in Heath and Human Services stimulus funds. The funds are to be used to prevent, prepare for and repayment of expenses due to COVID-19. The funds can be used for healthcare related expenses or lost revenue due to the virus.

Berkhouse said he is waiting on more information from the federal government on how to use the funds.

• Due to the financial uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Berkhouse proposed completing a first quarter budget for fiscal year 2021. The budget will be presented in June for approval. The hospital administrative team would then revisit the FY 2021 budget in August when the pandemic has stabilized and the administrative team can build a more realistic budget for the board to consider. The consensus of the board was for Berkhouse to do that.

• Approval was given to a proposal by Berkhouse to join the National Health Service Corps to provide a sliding scale fee discount program for patients to pay their hospital bills. The program would be based on patient income and would be available for patients with incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty guidelines. The discount program the hospital has currently goes up to 150 percent of the poverty guidelines. Bair and Berkhouse said joining the NHSC and offering the discount program will greatly enhance the hospital’s ability to recruit medical providers.

• Bair said Emily Lindsley, an advance practice registered nurse, will join the ECMC medical staff in July as a per diem provider. She has been employed with the Lincoln County Hospital since 2019. She previously worked for ECMC for 10 years.

Bair said Josh Bahr of Ellsworth, still desires to return to Ellsworth to practice medicine upon completion of his residency program. Bair also said Dr. Ken Baxa, who specializes in internal medicine and rheumatology, will be joining the outpatient speciality clinics in late July. He will work every other week. Rheumatology is a new service to ECMC.

• Approval was given to purchase a new cardiac monitoring system from Mind Ray at a cost of $219,000.

• Approval was given to the purchase of three new Life Pack defibrillators at a cost of $60,857.88.

• No action was taken after an executive session to discuss data relating to the financial affairs or trade secrets of corporations, partnerships, trusts and individual proprietorships (use of the SBA loan).

• No action was taken after an executive session to discuss non-elected personnel (performance).

The next meeting of the ECMC board of directors will be at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, in the hospital conference room.