BCMC Board meets to conduct May business

By Tim Kessler

Bradley County Medical Center recently received $744,000 in Medicaid reimbursements but may have to send about $200,000 of that back, the board of directors was told at the May monthly meeting at the Brunson Medical Complex on Thursday.

Controller Leslie Huitt explained that an interim cost report was sent in around mid-March to determine the reimbursements. A Medicare reimbursement still hasn’t been determined. However, since costs per day are decreasing, the $200,000 return was indicated.

Huitt reported most patient volumes were up but the Women’s Clinic and Senior Care volumes were down.

She said expenses had risen by 2.9 percent in April, mostly due to rising prices and inflation.

However, CEO Steve Henson said the hospital has participated in a 340b program which had saved about $146,000 in prescription costs in its first year of operation.

Huitt said figures were being adjusted for the annual audit which should be completed by mid-June.

In other action:

• Public relations director Dennen Cuthbertson reported on his job. He said he was a Warren native, obtained bachelor and master’s degrees from Arkansas State University and worked as the ASU sports information director before coming back to Warren to work at BCMC.
• He said his job consists of maintaining social media contacts, marketing and public relations. Besides the BCMC Facebook page, he set up a separate Rural Health Clinic Facebook page. He also has created billboards and does news releases. Some communications have also been made with the Hispanic community.

• Medical staff recommendations were presented by Chief of Staff Dr. Joe Wharton. The board approved the following recommendations: Dr. Justin Powell, psychiatry, reappointment to May 2023; Dr. Shyann Renfroe, radiology, reappointment to June 2023; Dr. Jheanelle Dawkins, family/emergency medicine, reappointment to August 2023; Kristen Harvey, APRN, reappointment to May 2023; Dr. Mazen Zawaideh, radiology, reappointment to September 2023; Dr. Edward Angtuaco, radiology, reappointment to October 2023; Dr. W. Mark White, radiology, reappointment to May 2023; Dr. J. Adam Yancey, radiology, reappointment to April 2023; Dr. Jeremy Saul, family/emergency medicine, initial appointment to May 2022; Jenifer Donnell-Kowalik, FPOB, initial appointment to May 2022; Joseph Hackler, D.O., cardiology, move to inactive status; Drs. Mohnned Ahmed, Maryam Bashiri, George Covert, Salman Hashmi, Jabbar Joshua, Michael Kittell, Glen Knowles, Emmanuel Obi, Onachi Ofoma, Charles Poteet, John Rayburn, Kristopher Stepps, Viviana Suarez, Darin Swonger and Jeanine Trevillyan, family/emergency medicine, move to inactive status. The changes in the ER doctors were due to a change in companies.

• Sales tax receipts in March totaled $88,710.42 after the 2 percent treasurer’s commission was removed. The sales tax fund has $3,290,294.98 available to spend.

• Henson said ER volumes were down in April. ESS took over ER services on Jan. 15. They will be calling former patients to see if the hospital met all their needs.

• Chief Nursing Officer Sarah Tucker said the National Hospital Week celebration was held in May. The hospital has recently had nine positive COVID-19 cases. An infection control meeting was held. BCMC will host a comfort station for the Tour De Tomato bike run and will help with an information booth during the Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival. She said Dr. Donnell-Kowalik was now seeing patients and scheduling OB procedures.

• The next board meeting will be held on June 24.