As the winter season nears, the medical staff at Ellsworth County Medical Center is seeing patients experiencing the three seasonal illnesses — COVID-19, the flu and strep — although the volume of those patients appears to be light.

“We’re continuing to see a light sprinkle of patients in the clinic and emergency room and the occasional inpatient,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Kirkbride said during the Nov. 15 monthly meeting of the hospital board of directors. “In fact, it’s kind of light compared to what we are used to this time of year.”

In other business:

• Human Resources Director Krista Bohnen said in October, the hospital saw a slight decrease in employees, with one employee leaving the organization.

Bohnen noted this is the first decrease in the last five months. She also noted there have been no new hires or terminations.

• According to Chief Financial Officer Charles Lewing said October was not a banner month financially for ECMC.

“It followed in the footsteps of last October,” he noted.

However, Lewing said the hospital had a pretty good month as far as revenue goes, with $2.3 million.

Lewing said deductions from revenue were significantly higher for October.

“Typically, we run about 31 percent, but we ran about 38 percent this month, and that was because of two denial-based appeals that we lost with two insurance companies,” he said. “Both of those added together were over $120,000.”

Lewing said the hospital also admitted an out-of-state Medicaid patient that came into the emergency room and was admitted. He noted when the hospital billed for that visit, insurance denied it because it wasn’t an in-state patient. The hospital appealed the denial based on medical necessity, but was once again denied payment.

He said in both cases, those bills will be moved to charity care status in hopes the hospital will eventually recover some of the cost for services provided.

Lewing said ECMC had a pretty good month when it came to inpatient days with 63 days compared to 48 in September.

“We did see that offset a little bit with our swing bed days,” he said. “We went from 33 (in September) to 15 (in October.)

Emergency room visits increased with 214 visits in October versus 193 in September.

The hospital also saw an uptick in outpatient visits with 1,362 visits in October compared to 1,244 in September.

Clinic encounters were also up, with 1,252 in October compared to 1,132 in October.

• Approval was given to the purchase of replacement shelving in the hospital pharmacy with an $18,400 bid from Lionville Pharmacy Shelving accepted. That cost will be paid for using county funds.

• Approval was given to a $13,545 bid to replace the HVAC system at the Wilson Clinic. That cost will be paid for using county funds.

• The purchase of the final LED signage for the rural health clinics at a cost of $45,890 was approved. That cost will be paid for using grant funds.

• After a 20-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel (appointments/reappointments), the following were approved:

• Appointments — Gary Morsh, MD, courtesy, DWS supervisor.

• Reappointments — Kate Flint, RDN, active, ECMC; Eastin Casey, MD, active, ECMC; Ronald Whitmer, DO, active, ECMC; Trent Blackwill, CRNA, active, holistic pain management.

• Resignations — Jill Furubayashi, MD, consulting, Stat Rad.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth County Medical Center board of directors will be at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20, in the hospital conference room.