Ellsworth County Medical Center recently received $196,647 in grant funds through the Increase the Reach program.

That was the news ECMC risk, safety and quality director Shamarie Farthing delivered to the hospital board of directors Dec. 22, during their monthly meeting.

The money, which is part of $1.7 million awarded to 11 organizations in Kansas through a partnership between the Wichita State University Community Engagement Institute and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, will be used to address health equity and vaccine confidence in the state.

In Ellsworth County, the dollars will be used for education, community mobile vaccination clinics and easier access to the medical center website, Farthing said.

“We’re pretty excited about that,” she added.

Farthing said the hospital will partner with the county health department on the mobile vaccination clinics.

“We’re going out to the smaller, rural areas, those with limited access, and providing COVID vaccinations,” she said. “But in this grant we can provide any vaccinations, so at flu season, or if we want to set up a child immunization clinic we can do that as well.”

In other business:

• Jim Kirkbride, chief executive officer, said the hospital had no inpatients with COVID and the patient census is down for the holidays.

• Farthing said outpatient satisfaction scores are still at 100 percent.

“We’re doing very well,” she said. She said the emergency room has been busy, which has led in some cases to slightly longer wait times. Patient satisfaction scores at the Rural Health Clinic continue to climb, with the most recent survey coming in near the 75 percent approval goal.

• Kirkbride said the hospital’s new CT scanner is up and running and the new flooring in the room has been installed.

• Approval was given to proceed with the remodeling project for the Rural Health Clinic in Ellsworth in the amount of $367,181.38. The funds for the project come from a COVID grant. The reception area in the clinic will be remodeled with modular desks to open up the area while at the same time making it more private for patients.

The remainder of the grant funding will be used at the hospital’s other rural health clinics in subsequent phases.

• Kirkbride said a new executive director of finance, Charles Lewing, has been hired. His first day at ECMC will be Jan. 17. Kirkbride said Lewing comes from rural Texas and has a large amount of leadership and accounting experience in critical access hospitals and public service.

“We are looking forward to Charles’ expertise and believe he will be an excellent addition to ECMC,” Kirkbride said.

• Kirkbride said the hospital had gross revenue for November of $2,244,552, compared to a budget amount of $2,035,456.

“That’s really, really good,” he said.

However, deductions from revenue for the month totalled $831,669, and are expected to remain at a higher level due to the addition of new services.

• During a conversation with the board on the minimum required number of people who can sign off to withdraw hospital funds from the bank, Kirkbride said he would like to get the thoughts of Lewing before bringing a recommendation to the board.

Board member Karen Pauley said the current — and longtime practice at ECMC of having just one person being able to withdraw funds — just seems like an unnecessary risk.

“That doesn’t seem appropriate,” she said. “It’s just not a good practice.”

• After a 20 minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel (appointments and reappointments), the initial appointments of Physician Assistant Spencer Anderson and Dr. Shannon Bownds, as well as the reappointments of Dr. Ken Baxa, DO, Trent Blackwell, CRNA, and Dr. Mark Mikinski, and the voluntary resignations of Dr. Robert Baril, DO, and Dr. Jeremiah Kempke as presented by the medical group were approved.

• After a 10-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel (provider contract review) approval was given to terminate privileges for Dr. Shane Frederickson as a practicing specialty provider within Ellsworth County Medical Center, effective immediately.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth County Medical Center board of directors will be at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 19, in the administration building conference room.