Ellsworth County Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Jim Kirkbride gave a brief update on planned construction projects during the June 18 hospital board meeting.

“We’ve selected the general contractor for the rehab project,” he said, adding that contractor is Murray Construction.

“We’re starting to discuss which one or two of our services will move into the vacated rehab department,” Kirkbride said. “That’s going to be a big deal to determine which service would fit the best in that setting.”

In other business:

• Financially for May, Kirkbride said gross revenue exceeded $450,000.

“Deductions were a little bit up, but proportionate,” he said. “Net revenue was a little lower and expenses were high.

Kirkbride said revenue for the 340B discount drug program is about back to where it was budgeted.

“We budgeted between $15,000 to $25,000 a month, so it’s pretty much back to normal.” he said.

Board President Clint Rogers complimented Kirkbride and his team for weathering the storm and navigating through some tough financial times in the past to get the hospital back on solid footing.

“I’m glad you guys now have the breathing room and you guys actually executed on that reimbursement to get us back to a very good days in cashon- hand,” Rogers said. “We had days in cash-onhand and we had the COVID grants and all of that type of stuff ... but this is unencumbered cash and it kind of puts us back to where we needed to be.”

• Looking at May statistics, Kirkbride said ECMC is pretty much right where it has been during the last quarter.

“Swing beds (67) still remain pretty strong,” he said.

Kirkbride noted observation admissions are up a little bit (25), with emergency room visits for May (224) back closer to where the hospital’s average has been (218-220 visits).

He also noted outpatient visits were down a bit for May (1,273), as well as clinic visits (1,145).

“That all is related just to missing providers,” Kirkbride said. “In the month of May and the month of June, we’ve had a lot of providers in and out due to vacations and other obligations.”

Kirkbride noted the months of July and August are going to be a challenge for the hospital as there are a couple of maternity leaves that will have to be “creatively staffed” with as little outside help as possible.

• Human Resources Director Stacie Schmidt gave an update on activities in that department.

“I have been busy,” she said.

Schmidt noted that since she came on board as HR director, she has been “breaking the system to rebuild it.”

Schmidt said she inherited the software system Paycom, which was being used to run payroll.

She noted, however, Paycom is a full-service HR software.

Schmidt said she and her team are concentrating on all phases of HR activities, from the interview process of prospective employees to retention of those employees and everything in between.

She has revised 15 policies and created three new ones.

She has been revising the hospital handbook, attending job fairs and working with employee engagement. Schmidt is also working to further develop the in-house television spots which highlight HR continuously on TV screens strategically placed throughout the hospital for both visitors and employees to view.

• It was noted the 2025-26 operations budget was not ready for review/approval, so a special board meeting will be scheduled prior to the end of June.

• After a 15-minute executive session to discuss nonelected personnel, (appointments and reappointments), approval was given to the following initial appointments from Real Radiology: Dr. Robert Anton, radiology, consulting; Dr. Chad Barker, radiology, consulting; Dr. David Bodne, Dr. Matthew Bourne, radiology, consulting; Dr. Peter Britt, radiology, consulting; Dr. Sean Chang, Dr. Andrew Ciccarelli, radiology, consulting; Dr. Jeffery Hebert, Dr. Jarret Kup, radiology, consulting; Dr. David Lin, Dr. Brandon Olivieri, radiology, consulting; Dr. Travis Petree, radiology, consulting; Dr. Karen Phillips, radiology, consulting; Dr. Mohammed Quraishi, radiology, consulting; Dr. Anthony Rowe, radiology, consulting; Dr. Veronica Ruvo, Dr. Shannon St. Clair, radiology, consulting; Dr. Colin Thompson, Dr. Frank Welte, radiology, consulting; Michael Wilson, radiology, consulting; Dr. Zi Rong Xu, radiology, consulting; Dr. Yuyang Zhang, radiology, consulting.

During a 20-minute executive session to discuss nonelected personnel (CEO annual evaluation), input for Kirkbride’s evaluation was obtained from the ECMC Board of Trustees, Ellsworth County Commissioners, ECMC medical staff members and the ECMC executive team. Afterward, Kirkbride reported the results were very positive. Market data for the CEO position was presented by HR to the ECMC board, and they approved a 6 percent salary raise for Kirkbride.

The next meeting of the ECMC board of directors will be at 5:30 p.m. July 16 in the hospital conference room.