Hospital moves forward with new strength

Bolstered by the successful bond measure and a positive first quarter, the Sonoma Valley Health Care District board reported good news on several fronts at its meeting Wednesday evening.
Board chair Dick Kirk opened the meeting with a report on the hospital’s Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) showing actual progress. “We are sharing services between the district hospitals – actually doing it,” he said. “Sonoma Valley staff is providing information technology, services and planning for the Palm Drive Hospital and providing a lot of expertise in moving along the whole JPA idea of having an IT system.” He added that Sonoma Valley financial billing and collection staff is providing ongoing support.
Kirk then congratulated the board, the campaign committee, the staff and the community for all their work to pass the bond measure. “It’s a real sense of community coming together,” he said. “The board of directors listened to the community and that has been a big success.” To the new board members present, he acknowledged that the election results were still not conclusive. “I’m pleased to see three of the candidates here, and we’ll see how that comes out,” he said. “My sense is that you will do well no matter how it comes out.”
Boardmember Bill Boerum continued the JPA discussion with a report and set of recommendations. Overall what is needed, he said, is “an architecture to pull all the hospitals together.” He suggested a list of needed resources and added, “I think sharing financial management with a shared CFO will bring the JPA to life as a cooperative and an effective entity.”
The hospital’s Chief Financial Officer Jim McSweeney reported that the hospital had posted a net income of $460,000 for the first quarter of its fiscal year, $390,000 better than budgeted. Cash balances showed an improvement of over $1 million thanks to the collection of a backlog of payments due from the State and Medicare program. He said that net income includes $736,000 of parcel tax revenues.
Chief Executive Officer Carl Gerlach opened a discussion of the Citizens’ Oversight Committee, the “watchdog” committee promised as part of Measure P, saying he has researched citizens’ oversight committees in other hospitals throughout the state and reminding the board that the purpose of the committee is to ensure that the bond funds are used only as described in the bond measure, and in a fiscally responsible manner. His suggestion to the board was that there be five to seven members, who will be appointed by the board after expressions of interest. Members must be residents of the district, not employees of the hospital or board officials, and have demonstrated interest in community enterprise, trustworthiness and experience with overseeing expenditures for similar projects.
The meeting concluded with a report by Richard Fogg, chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, on its study – requested by Kirk at the committee’s last meeting – of the Health Plan of the Redwoods’ demise. Fogg said the committee had convened a panel to undertake the study. “There’s a very high level of interest,” he said, “and some very hard opinions of what we want to do next.” He promised more information following the next committee meeting.
Because of the lateness of the hour, a scheduled report on the Women’s Health and Wellness Center was deferred to next month.