The Ellsworth County Medical Center board of directors welcomed a new board member during the Jan. 11 board meeting.

Rob Koch assumed the seat representing the Holyrood area, previously held by Karen Pauley who resigned the seat several months ago.

“Thank you for agreeing to serve,” Board President Clint Rogers said.

In other business:

• Chief Executive Officer Jim Kirkbride said the hospital currently has one COVID positive patient. He said ECMC had seen an increase in COVID inpatients, but testing and positive cases had reduced greatly by the end of December.

Kirkbride said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has downgraded Ellsworth County to moderate transmission status, but ECMC will continue to require masking for all visitors and staff.

• Kirkbride said he has interviewed several physician candidates recently.

One physician candidate will be on-site from 11 a.m. to noon Friday, Feb. 10, in the hospital administration building conference room for a meet-and-greet with hospital staff.

• Approval was given to a request by Rogers to amend the board policy on students taking part in the junior board member program. The board amended the policy to allow students who reside in Ellsworth County to be eligible for the scholarship program. Previously, the policy read that students had to be attending an Ellsworth County school, either Ellsworth High School or Wilson High School, but now it will be open to any resident in the county in case the student still lives in Wilson but will be going to high school outside the county, such as in Sylvan Grove.

Rogers said he made the request due to the recent decision by the Central Plains USD 112 board of education to close the Wilson Jr./Sr. High School building at the end of the 2022-23 school year and reassign those 7-12 grade students to Central Plains Jr./Sr. High School in Claflin. Rogers said that decision makes Wilson students ineligible to serve as junior hospital board members. The amendment remedy makes them eligible once again.

• Executive Director of Business Operations Charles Lewing said the hospital’s gross revenue exceeded $2.4 million in December. Operating expenses overall were $96,000 more than the prior year. The majority of that excess was in salary and labor expenses.

Lewing said the hospital did see a significant increase in the number of inpatients and swing bed days. Emergency r0oom visits increased as well, along with outpatient and Rural Health Clinic visits.

“It was a very good month,” Lewing said.

• During her quarterly nursing report, Director of Nursing Amy Ranker said second semester nursing students from Barton Community College and Salina Area Technical College will be job shadowing in the emergency room and the inpatient area of the hospital.

Ranker said on Dec. 31, funding was cut for the Mission Control website which the nursing staff at ECMC used when transferring patients.

“This (website) was very helpful and reduced the time needed and the number of phone calls our staff had to make to try to arrange these transfers,” Ranker said.

Ranker said her nursing staff have resumed the responsibility of making those calls to find available transfer facilities for ECMC patients.

She noted the number of available beds and all transfer services are still short across the state. In addition, air ambulance services are being closed across the nation, including the helicopter ambulance base in Salina, which was the closest to ECMC.

Now, the hospital calls a Great Bend-based air ambulance service. That extends the arrival time needed for a helicopter transport and delays the time of transfer for the hospital’s patients who are in critical condition.

• No action was taken after a 30-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel.

• No action was taken after a 10-minute executive session to discuss matters of attorney/client privilege (the statutory power of the board).

The next meeting of the Ellsworth County Medical Center board of directors will be at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the hospital conference room.