The Estes Park Health Board of Directors listened to updates from EPH CEO Vern Carda and Chief Nursing Officer Pat Samples at the latest hospital board meeting on Wednesday, Apr. 24.
Carda, who has been leading the strategic planning session for EPH, mentioned that the planning process continues to focus on the framework stage. According to Carda, this includes the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the hospital faces from a business management perspective.
The staff, including physicians, board, managers and other personnel, is currently looking at where improvements and changes can be made to make recommendations to the planning committee.
“We would like to try to have a framework by mid-June,” said Carda. “We have slipped a couple of weeks in our timeframe but certainly we will make the tactical planning, business cases and action plans by August primarily because that is when we start our budget planning process.”
Carda also provided an update regarding the recent visit for the DNV survey.
DNV, which is the accrediting association for healthcare institutions that accept Medicare and Medicaid, visited EPH to review the 12 outstanding items from the 2023 survey. They also reviewed the hospital for this year’s survey.
Sixty percent of Estes Park Health’s revenues come from Medicare and Medicaid payments.
According to Carda, all 12 items were put back into compliance and the hospital is waiting for this year’s report. He stated that there were no serious deficiencies noted in this year’s survey but DNV has ten days to return the full results of the visit.
Carda wrapped up his report by announcing the retirement of two EPH employees, Don Shelley of the information technology team, and Shelli Lind, Chief Human Resources Officer.
Before Samples reviewed the Infection Prevention Program, she added a few points regarding the DNV visit.
“I am confident we will receive our ISO certification with this survey,” said Samples. “In the eyes of DNV, we have a very solid quality program. We have worked very hard the last three years to get us to where we need to be. That is a big validation that we are headed in the right direction.”
Samples added that they know they have some work to do around documentation and process. That was some of the feedback DNV gave to the hospital.
“What was exciting for me was that all eight of our surveyors commented on the attitudes of our team members, the happiness of our staff, the joy we work into the day, the fun we work into a day,” said Samples. “They talked about how confident our leaders were.”
Samples continued by letting the board know that the hospital received their first public health order of 2024. Given only two day’s notice, the order goes into effect on April 25 and addresses the rise in cases of syphilis in Colorado.
Per the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website, Public Health Order 24-01 requires all healthcare settings and medical providers who care for anyone who is pregnant to offer syphilis testing:
- In the first trimester of pregnancy (between 1-12 weeks), or at the patient’s first prenatal visit.
- In the third trimester (between 28-32 weeks).
- At the time of delivery.
- When there is a fetal death after 20 weeks’ gestation.
- When a patient who is pregnant goes to an urgent care center or emergency room, at the intervals and events described above.
- At correctional facilities, including prisons, jails, and juvenile detention centers, at the intervals and events described above.
“This public health order is around congenital syphilis in the State of Colorado,” said Samples. “To give you an idea, in 2022, we had five cases in Colorado. In 2023, we had 50 cases with five newborn deaths. And already in 2024, we have had 25 with two stillbirths. It is out there. Now they are considering it a pandemic in Colorado.”
Samples went on to clarify that any pregnant woman who accesses urgent care or an emergency department who is in the first or third trimester must have a syphilis test. All employees will be trained on the infection management plan for this order.
Other topics covered by Samples included the restart of ophthalmology procedures after improving a process for sterilizing equipment and the update on hospice and home healthcare services.
“The reason we stopped ophthalmology was because it has more intricate requirements in cleaning, and the process to clean, which is why we had to pull a second set of osmosis water,” said Samples. “The safest thing to do was to pause, get this all done and restart.”
For hospice and home healthcare, Samples said they are looking at June for a new company to take over the services for the hospital. In the interim, the social workers at EPH have been helping families find service, including seven families who had loved ones in the active stages of dying. She said a Boulder company has been coming up to help with infusion therapies for those who are not mobile and that the EPH social workers are providing more care than when EPH was offering these services.
The final report was from Lind. She stated that the change to the employee retirement plan to make employees fully vested at hire date, which was approved at the April 3 board meeting, continues to progress. Her team is pulling together the necessary documents to finalize this change as quickly as possible.
After Lind’s departure, Anna Lipasek will take over the role of Human Resources Manager. EPH will hire a human resources assistant to backfill the open position.
The final comments came from Board Chairman David Batey, who provided a brief update about the affiliation process, saying that EPH continues to be optimistic that they will accomplish their goals in achieving affiliation for the hospital and the community. He could not elaborate further due to the non-disclosure agreement in place regarding the process.
The next Estes Park Health board meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 29 at 5:30 p.m.
For more information about EPH board meetings, visit https://eph.org/about-us/board-of-directors/meeting-information-revised/.
