[Editor's Note: This is part 6 of a series of articles on the Grant County Commission work session on Sept. 12, 2023 and the regular meeting on Sept. 14, 2023.. This article continues with the review of the regular meeting agenda at the work session. This article begins with a GRMC report.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

County Manager Charlene Webb at the work session, said the next report would come from Gila Regional Medical Center for the monthly update.

At the regular session, Chief Financial Officer Patrick Banks said the reason the Interim Chief Executive Officer Margie Molitor was absent was "for a very good reason. She's interviewing candidates to replace her in a permanent position. The Board of Trustees identified three excellent candidates who will be interviewing from now through next Friday. Hopefully, we will have a selection by month's end. We'll keep you posted. The board's criteria were ties to New Mexico and experience as a CEO at a critical access hospital, so we're excited to be able to bring in candidates with those qualifications."

He announced that a new Chief Nursing Officer would begin on Sept. 25. [Editor's Note: Jessica Workman pulled out at the last minute because of family issues, so a new one has been chosen. Ron Green, a local and long-time employee of Gila Regional will fill the position.]

"We also managed to fill a lab director permanent position, so Gila Regional continues its recruiting efforts," Banks continued. "On the operations front, the new Emergency Department group will begin Oct. 1, so the providers are going through the credentialing process. There may have been community confusion during the transition, but the emergency department will continue to function as it has. We continue to wait for a scope of work from Trane for our OR air handler replacement that has been approved by the federal government. On the Labor and Delivery Department, we've been talking about the Women's Service Center for quite some time. The architects have reviewed the final variances. They have been submitted to the state and as soon as they are approved the contractors will begin work. They have already identified sub-contractors for the project. We look forward to that getting underway. We have a grant for an upgrade to the nurse call system throughout the hospital. We hope to submit this week the plans for approval of that project to hopefully get started this year. We're also working on Meditech Expanse, which is our electronic health record, which basically drives everything we do in the hospital. The team has done a great job. We're on schedule for what we call integrated testing, and we're on track for the go live date in November. We are also renovating what we call Pod 3 to turn it into an orthopedic clinic. It is a space that hasn't been used since we went to the critical access designation. It will be on the hospital grounds close to imaging services that you need for orthopedic care. Most of the work is being done inhouse.

"On the service front, we would like to highlight the great work by our Auxiliary," Banks said. "We honored them with an appreciation luncheon yesterday. They are a small but mighty group of volunteers. They staff not only the main entrance, but also the Cancer Center, the Surgery Center and the Gift Shop. If you got a welcoming smile from someone in a pink or blue vest, that's the auxiliary. We'd like to highlight some statistics. The Auxiliary donated 7,635 hours last year at a value of $91,620 that the hospital did not have to spend on staff salaries. If you look at just the active roster over the years, they have donated more than 100,000 hours at an estimated value of more then $1.2 million."

He said on the finance side, "we're doing our job. We posted at the end of July a modest surplus of $15,000, but that's on budget especially for July. We increased our days of cash on hand to 142, so the hospital is on budget, solvent and doing what it needs to do for the long haul. We made an offer to a pediatrician, so we will keep you posted on that. We do plan to issue a request to use funds from SB 7 to improve pediatric care in the community, not just in the hospital but using hospital resources or space or some other form of aid we can provide. We also started a radiation oncologist Dr. Arsenault in August in our Cancer Center. Dr. Hayostek has retired but will remain current and is willing to fill in to make sure a radiation oncologist is available when Dr. Arsenault is on vacation or otherwise. We haven't heard yet on the federal appropriation side whether the MRI has been approved, but we hope it will be. We also have great work from the GRMC Foundation, who has planned a 40th anniversary celebration for the hospital called Ruby and Scrubs on Friday, Oct. 27 from 5-8 p.m. at the Murray Hotel. Ticket prices are $25, with hors d'oeuvres, live music and a silent auction. "

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked about what is happening with the new Chief Financial Officer.

"As I transition to a regional role with Health Tech, I will remain with my hand in the pot to make sure Gila Regional is extremely well taken care of," Banks said. "We anticipate an interim CFO will come in with the expectation that the CEO will drive the selection for a permanent CFO."

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards said: "There is actually a value of volunteer work in New Mexico at $26.95 an hour making the 7,635 hours of auxiliary work worth $205,763.25."

In her second comment, she said she wanted to thank Banks for his service to Gila Regional. "We are deeply appreciative of what you have done to contribute to the financial standing of the hospital, and congratulations for your big step up into a new job."

The next item on the agenda addressed the financial report from Finance Officer Linda Vasquez. For the period ending Sept. 6, 2023, the total expenditures came to $6,465,356.60, which included two payroll periods totaling $475,203.44 and also included extraordinary expenditures above $10,000 listed in the PDF below.

The next article will begin the elected officials reports at the regular meeting.

For previous articles, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80266-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-0912223-part-1 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80291-grant-county-commission-work-session-091223-part-2; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80329-grant-county-commission-work-session-091223-and-regular-meeting-part-3; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80357-grant-county-commission-work-session-091223-and-regular-meeting-091423-part-4 ; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80432-grant-county-commission-work-session-091223-and-regular-meeting-091423-part-5 .