MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE WALKER COUNTY HOSPITAL DISTRICT
July 25, 2018
STATE OF TEXAS X
COUNTY OF WALKER X
The Board of Managers of the Walker County Hospital District, Walker County, Texas met in a regular session, open to the public, Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. at Huntsville Memorial Hospital, Huntsville, Texas.
Members of the Board present included:
Chairman, Anne Woodard
Vice Chairman, Judy Emmett
Secretary, Jerry Larrison
Manager, Curtis Montgomery
Manager, David Toronjo
Absent: Ralph Beaty, Office Administrator;
Also in attendance were: Keli Molina, WCHD Administrative Assistant; Michael Morgan, Healthcare Management Partners CEO and Wade Thibodeaux, Walker County Press.
Agenda Item #1: Call meeting to order.
Chairman Anne Woodard called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m.
Agenda Item #2: Consider approving the minutes for the Regular Meeting held on June 27, 2018.
Dr. Toronjo made a motion to approve the minutes for June 27, 2018. Mrs. Emmett made a second to the motion. The motion passed by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #3: Comments from the public. If you wish to address the Board of Managers, please register prior to the meeting being called to order.
None at this time.
Agenda Item #4: Consider approving payment of indigent care bills.
Chairman Ann Woodard gave the Indigent care report and stated the Jail will be lowering their monthly bill, we will be working with them to have a contract by next month. I would suggest paying only the prescription bills this month and not the Monthly Invoice for the medical care until the contract is made then we can pay the balance we owe and the correct amount due each month. Chairman Anne Woodard also stated we should only be paying 3 prescriptions per inmate as we do the indigent care patients. The indigent Care Bills total for the month of June 2018 is $11,196.97. Mr. Larrison made a motion to approve the payment of the Inmate Indigent Care Drug Bills only. The motion was seconded by Dr. Montgomery. The motion passed by 4 to 1 with Dr. Toronjo abstaining.
Agenda Item #5: Review and consider approving the monthly financial report.
The Statement of Revenues Expenditures for the month ending July 2018 was presented by Chairman Anne Woodard. Revenue for the month was $367,584.43 and expenditures were $603,472.01. Mr. Larrison made a motion to approve the financial report as presented. The motion was seconded by Dr. Montgomery. The motion passed by 4 to 1 with Dr. Toronjo abstaining. Dr. Toronjo stated the attorney fees are too high for the WCHD and he also stated we need to sever the attorneys out. He asked the names of all the hospital district’s attorneys and who Melissa Mahalick was. Chairman Anne Woodard confirmed Melissa works with Bracewell and was working on the open records request we received. Dr. Toronjo brought a letter dated May 22nd from the Attorney Generals office and passed it out to all board minutes and he stated that this letter had Melissa Mahalick as our attorney. Chairman Anne Woodard stated we do not have a contract with Melissa Mahalick, she works for Bracewell. Chairman Anne Woodard stated there was an open records request for the 90 Day letter and HMH did not want the letter given out due to their financials in the back of the letter. HMH requested the Open Records Request be sent to the Attorney General. Dr. Toronjo said he had never seen this letter before and did not know this was going on. Judy Emmett stated that the board had discussed this at one of the meetings. Chairman Anne Woodard stated there was no wrong doing we did everything correctly. Dr. Toronjo talked about a letter from our Attorney Brenda Strama directing each board member to take a course on open records online, he said this was odd. Jerry Larrison and Judy Emmett both stated they had taken the open records course when they were elected to the board. Dr. Toronjo stated a person from the public gave him the letter from the Attorney General. Chairman Anne Woodard stated the Attorney General gave out what they should. Dr. Toronjo made a motion to sever relations with all the districts attorneys except Joe Henderson. The motion failed due to no second.
Agenda Item #6: Consider approving payment of monthly bills.
The amount of July 2018 monthly bills were $47,099.82. After some discussion and explanation of the itemized bills, Dr. Montgomery made a motion to pay the monthly bills as presented. Mr. Larrison made a second to the motion. The motion passed by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #7: Approve recording of July 2018 budgeted indigent care expense in the amount of $568,334.00.
Chairman Anne Woodard gave a brief review of the budgeted indigent care expenses. Mrs. Emmett made a motion to approve the recording of the monthly indigent care expense for July 2018. The motion was seconded by Dr. Montgomery. The motion passed by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #8: Consider giving approval to Walker County Appraisal District to accept the bids received on the properties in trust owned by the taxing jurisdictions.
None at this time.
Agenda Item #9: Approve Order Calling for the Walker County Hospital District Board of Managers’ General Election to be held November 6, 2018, for three (3) Managers to serve two (2) year terms each: and also, appoint election judges, designate polling places and detailing provisions relating to Early Voting.
Mr. Larrison made a motion to approve the order calling the election as presented. Dr. Montgomery made a second to the motion. The motion carried by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #10: Authorize Joint Election Agreement between County of Walker, Texas, City of Huntsville, Texas, the City of New Waverly, Texas, the City of Riverside, Texas, the Huntsville Independent School District the New Waverly Independent School District, the Richards Independent School District, and the Walker County Hospital District for the November 6, 2018 General Election.
Dr. Montgomery made a motion to approve this agreement. Mr. Larrison made a second to the motion. The motion carried by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #11: Comments and reports from managers and HMH administration. Michael Morgan, Heathcare Management Partners CEO gave a brief report on HMH. We have released to 40 Healthcare Systems throughout the country information concerning the hospital status, the Investment banking firm H2C is leading this. We expect to have at least ½ dozen interested that will respond. We have put in place an electronic data room to help them thru this process. We are looking for a strategic fit that has the capital for HMH. HMH is working on financials and also working to clean up the balance sheet, July 1st will begin the New Year. We have closed some very expensive clinics outside the county. Riverside will also be closed and we will move these employees to the HMH Clinic. Michael Morgan stated the EBITA is the figure that reflects the value of HMH and they were able to bring this figure down. We will have the HMH Financials ready for the board meeting tomorrow and they will be shared with your council and they are looking a lot better. Michael stated the CCU was up 10.7% from last year, patient days are up 6% and deliveries are up 11.5% but should be going up even more after the new Nurse Practitioner starts her employment with the HMH Clinic. The OB Medicaid patients will help a great deal. Michael stated the surgeries for HMH are up 12.3% from last year and the ER visits are up 2.4%. Michael reported that in the past 6 months the inpatient is up 22.6% and the outpatient up 9.4%. Chairman Anne Woodard asked Michael Morgan if the Press Ganey scores have went up and he responded that they have went up and we have placed a patient advocate full time in the ER during the day and we will be putting another patient advocate in the ER for weekends and later into the evenings. Michael Morgan also stated this is our low volume time of the year, with school starting up soon and the flu season to come the volume will be going up. Judy Emmett asked if HMH would be cutting out the volunteer program and Michael Morgan stated no the volunteer program will stay. Dr. Toronjo asked what the timeline looks like now for the partnership with the improvements made, will this extend it. Michael Morgan replied it will not extend it but we are looking at sometime around September 1st.
Agenda Item #12: Adjourn meeting.
There being no further business, Chairman Anne Woodard adjourned the meeting at 7:20 pm.
__________________________________
Chairman Anne Woodard
Walker County Hospital District
{Seal}
Attest: _______________________________
Jerry Larrison, Secretary
Walker County Hospital District