Hospital chooses new pharmacy provider (1/27/05)

Jay County Hospital Board members voted Wednesday to end a pharmacy management contract with one company and enter into a new one with another.

During Wednesday’s meeting, JCH chief nurse executive Judy Lemire said service provided to the hospital by Pharmacy Systems Inc. has been unsatisfactory. The company has had problems providing a director for the hospital’s pharmacy.

Board members voted to form a one-year contract with Cardinal Health System to provide pharmacy management services. The annual savings would be about 40 percent, Lemire said.

The annual cost for PSI has been “outrageously expensive,” she said. Lemire estimated the hospital has been paying the company more than $300,000 per year for its services.

The board voted Wednesday to end the contract with the company on April 30.

JCH chief executive officer Joe Johnston said this morning the hospital has to give PSI a 90-day notice that the contract will end. The company has provided pharmacy management services to the hospital for several years, he said.

JCH would pay CHS about $4,000 per month. The hospital’s goal is to be able to run the pharmacy itself, Johnston said.

Board member Stephanie May, who works for CHS, abstained from voting because of a potential conflict of interest.

The board also approved a three-year contract with Behavioral Health Concepts of Indianapolis to establish a 10-bed psychiatric care unit for elderly patients at the hospital. The start-up cost is $28,000, then the company will be paid a monthly fee.

The specialty referral clinic, located at the back of the hospital, will be renovated and 1,600 square feet will be added, Johnston said. Construction is expected to cost about $750,000 and will probably begin in the spring.

The clinic will be temporarily relocated to part of Dr. Marvin McBride Jr.’s office or some office space at the Vormohr Medical Center. Plans are to eventually remodel an area on the first floor of the hospital for the clinic, JCH chief financial officer Don Michael said this morning.

A contract with TGS Architects Inc. of Indianapolis to design the 4,000 square foot area was approved by the board.

Also Wednesday, the board heard hospital staff members report how JCH dealt with the Jan. 5 ice storm.

Johnston said the hospital was nearly filled to capacity in the days following the storm. Lemire said two beds were left open in case the hospital became very busy and wasn’t able to transport patients.

A generator powered only essential services at the hospital, such as heat and lights in the patient rooms. Employees in the business office and the medical records department, who couldn’t do their jobs because there was no electricity, helped do whatever else needed to be done.

Although only having a generator to run the essential services was difficult, Johnston said JCH managed just fine.

All of the department heads met after the storm and discussed what changes need to be made in case the community would ever go through such a situation again.

Johnston said it would be a good idea to have emergency power in the administration office and emergency lights in the public restrooms.

Also Wednesday, the board:

•Approved the purchase of a lab information system from Cerner Corporation through Pathologists Associated for no more than $95,000. By purchasing through PA, the hospital is able to get discounts.

This computer system gets lab results to physicians more quickly, creates less paperwork and has a low possibility of errors because it uses a bar code system.

•Voted to form a one-year agreement to provide laboratory services to residents of AmeriCare Living Center of Portland and Heritage Commons assisted living center.

•Voted to purchase office and medical equipment from CHS for McBride’s office at a cost of $35,690.

•Voted to pay the hospital’s annual Indiana Hospital and Health Association dues of $11,080.

•Approved one-year service agreements with Associated X-Ray Imaging Corporation for mammography equipment for $2,700; Advanced Sterilization Products for a surgical instruments sterilizing machine at a cost of $9,980; and Ethicon Inc. for a neoprobe instrument, which locates breast tumors, at a price of $3,500.

Also approved by the board, was a five-year service agreement with Siemens/Burdick for nuclear medicine equipment for $27,825. This machine is used to study blood flow in cardiac patients.

•Heard Michael report the hospital had a net income of $30,288 in December. Admissions in December totaled 83. This figure is down 7 percent from the budgeted number of 88.

•Heard auxiliary president Marilyn Post report 66 hospital auxiliary volunteers worked 1,116 hours in December.[[In-content Ad]]A vote by the local hospital board may help speed up construction of a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Portland.

John Coldren, attorney for the Jay County Hospital Board, said the hospital’s 15-inch storm water drainage tile currently runs west through the property where Wal-Mart will be built. The project developers needed the hospital’s permission to reroute the tile.

The board approved an agreement with Wal-Mart, which allows the hospital’s tile to continue to run through the property. Wal-Mart will reroute the tile so it runs north, then west to the ditch along Industrial Park Drive. Otherwise, the tile would go under the new store.

Johnston said this morning that Wal-Mart, which is slated to be located just west of Heritage Commons, will enlarge the hospital’s tile to 18 inches so Wal-Mart can also use it.

Coldren said Wal-Mart has not yet purchased the property for the 155,017 square foot store from the John and Margaret Finch Charitable Trust. The corporation could not close on the land until the tile agreement was approved by the hospital, he said.

In order to ensure the hospital would be able to expand in the future, the board also voted to get permission from the Finch Trust to run a drain tile on the deceased couple’s property, if needed. The Finch Trust owns the land to the west and north of the hospital and Heritage Commons.

Johnston said if the hospital ever expanded there would be more rain water runoff. The existing tile could not handle the larger volume. To solve the problem, the hospital would possibly need to run a drain tile on the Finch property.