THREE RIVERS HEALTH BOARD REPORTS FIRM FINANCIAL FOOTING

At its August board meeting,Three Rivers Health Authority Board of Trustees reported income is $166,338 ahead of budget and $1,275,000 ahead of last year.
“We are on firm ground financially thanks to the dedication to service, excellence and care everyone has maintained – from our senior staff, employees and the board,” said Chief Executive Officer, William Russell.

The board then announced a new relationship with Family Practitioner, Dr. Michelle Cervin, to replace Dr. Govier in the White Pigeon office. She is expected to begin the first of October.

During the meeting, hospital executives also reported that construction continues on the 6 bed orthopedic unit that is relative to the arrival of Robert Schaefer, M.D., Orthopedic Surgeon, on September 15. Phase one, which is the expansion of the OR storage area has been completed. Phase two, which is the patient room renovation is moving forward. The final phase, which is the renovations of the sterile processing and post anesthesia recovery unit (PACU) will follow.

The Three Rivers Health Board also discussed the implementation of the studies and philosophies of Studer whose Mission is to make health care a better place for employees to work, physicians to practice medicine, and patients to receive care. Their Vision is to be the intellectual resource for health care professionals, combining passion with prescriptive actions and tools, to drive outcomes and maximize the human potential within each organization and health care as a whole. This initiative will be an ongoing.

The Hazmat Emergency Drill was held Thursday, August 20 in participation with Three Rivers Fire and EMS as well as Air Care. Plans and procedures that worked and didn’t work were identified at the post drill meeting and will be used to make changes and improve the emergency response program.

In other business, ICD-10 is coming to Three Rivers. ICD-10 is the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), a medical classification list by the World Health Organization (WHO). It contains codes for diseases, signs and symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or diseases. These codes are utilized to code all diagnosis and hospital inpatient procedures for administrative transactions. ICD-10 will be implemented on October 1, 2015. Coder training is complete and final physician training will occur throughout September.

For over 90 years, Three Rivers Health has offered its patients and community technology-driven care,
including a wide array of inpatient, rehabilitation, outpatient, wellness, hospice care and specialty clinic
services. To discover more about Three Rivers Health, call 269.278.1145 or visit threerivershealth.org.