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Hospital health topic of Chamber luncheon talk |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
High Country Lumber's Piercey is welcomed as new member
By Lara Kirkner
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Eric Wasserman welcomes Scott Piercey of High Country Lumber as the newest member of the Mammoth Chamber of Commerce. MAMMOTH TIMES PHOTO/LARA KIRKNER
After welcoming Piercey, Chamber President Eric Wasserman introduced speakers, Lori Ciccarelli and Joe Bottom from Mammoth Hospital. Ciccarelli is the hospital's Community Relations Director and Bottom serves as the Chief Operating Officer.
The two recapped what had previously been reported regarding the Hospital Board's search for a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and added that the final three candidates are expected to return to Mammoth between Friday, March 7 and Monday, March 10 for final interviews with the Board, employees, medical staff and the hospital's auxiliary.
Until now, hospital employees had complained of being left out of the process entirely, but the Board claimed they were simply trying to whittle the pool down into a manageable size before bringing candidates before employees. The Board, however, will make the final selection.
Bottom told the Chamber that the hospital hopes to choose a new CEO by the middle or end of April. At this time the hospital has also started a search for a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to replace former CFO Tim Bishop. The hospital plans to choose a new CFO within two to three months of finding their CEO, so that the new CEO can help in the decision-making process for the CFO.
In the meantime, Bottom, the Chief Nursing Officer and other hospital managers are holding down the fort at the hospital.
“The hospital and the healthcare are not affected by the absence of the CEO and CFO but a lot of the hospital's planning is,” Bottom said.
Part of that crucial planning, however, deals with the hospital not only needing to get its billing system in order, but also continuing to pay off the debt it accrued while building the new wing of the hospital, which opened last year. Bottom could not put an exact number on how much the hospital still owes on this debt because claims still need to be evaluated. Hospital business is in good health, however, with $7.5 million in services provided in the month of January. That number is what was billed, not what was actually collected. The hospital still struggles with its billing and collection system, and Bottom admitted there is about $18 million of uncollected payments on the books at this time.
During the question and answer period of the lunch, Bottom and Ciccarelli responded to questions about infection rates at the hospital by explaining that there is an Infection Control Coordinator, Antonette Ciccarelli, who looks at the rates of infection on a daily basis. The question was raised due to rumors and concerns that patients at Mammoth Hospital have been contracting serious and possibly deadly infections.
Bottom could not comment on any specific case, but stated that Mammoth Hospital has a very low infection rate and there is no indication of concern at this point.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 March 2008 )
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