An approximate $16,000 profit may not look like much on paper, but after the past few years of being hundreds of thousands of dollars in the red, the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital Board will take it.

PMH board chair Bob Must said last year at this time the hospital was looking at a $1.2 million loss.
"We're in the black [now]," Must said. "Just a little in the black, but we're in the black."

According to the finance report by PMH's financial officer Chad Carpenter, salaries and wages are in line with the budget, while drugs and supplies are higher than the budget. Carpenter said during the last 10 months, his office has reconciled accounts and has been cleaning up accounts and other things mentioned in audits.

The PMH Clinic showed a $12,000 loss for May, while the PMH Ambulance Service showed a significant profit; however, that profit was diminished somewhat by the news that $121,000 showing in revenues was a $35,000 overstatement due to a key-in error.

"The rest of it is real," Carpenter told the board.
About $121,000 in bad debts will go to the collection agency, he continued.

The board approved a collaboration with Gibbs Kinderman and the VISTA program for grant funding nutrition outreach.
The primary focus will be childhood obesity.

"It's another great opportunity for the hospital to show its engagement in the community," said interim administrator Barbara Lay.

The program will need some space, which Lay said could be found at the clinic.

Lay said that the new podiatry clinic saw 13 patients in its first day and that another physician is available to help out after Dr. Jeffrey McCray leaves in July. Yet another doctor is interested in beginning a colonoscopy clinic at the hospital. Lay said that doctor wants a guaranteed three-to-five patients a month. She noted colonoscopy services were part of the hospital's strategic plan to expand services.

As for the CEO search, Must reported that eight people had applied for the job. The search committee has selected three of the candidates to interview.

The hospital will get a new phone system at a cheaper rate thanks to IT specialist Aaron Vaughan's leg work. The system will actually cost the hospital some $1,100 less than the current system.

The PMH board will hold its annual meeting July 28 during which it will elect officers and approve the 2011-12 budget.

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