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The Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors met for their regular meeting Tuesday evening at the hospital library. The summary of operations for the month of November showed that inpatient census days were down as were outpatient registrations that helped create a loss from operations of $154,429. Hospital Administrator Dennis Pryor stated that even though the expenses were controlled very well, the low admission numbers and it being a three- payroll month, helped cause the loss. In the overall expenses, employee benefits, marketing and utilities were all down, while drug costs increased. The cash flow showed that there was an actual cash decrease of $295,745 for the month of November. This caused the “days cash on hand” figure to go from 69 last month to from 65 this month, while the days in account receivables stayed strong at 42 days. Director of Nursing Carol Lacy reported that during the month, there were 771 emergency room visits with an average turnaround time of 125 minutes. Also during the month, there were 166 ambulance runs with 167 patients being assessed, 38 surgery cases as Dr. Voight scheduled an additional day in November, 1,557 outpatient registrations, 98 home health visits, 7,648 lab tests, 964 radiological procedures, 193 CT scans, 30 MRI scans, 18 nuclear med scans, 413 rehab treatments, 191 dialysis treatments and 317 clinical visits of which 120 were for podiatry. The board reviewed ambulance response times from within the hospital for fiscal year 2013, the month of November for all calls and for just 9-1-1 calls. The numbers continue to be outstanding. Lacy gave the flu update that showed that three cases have been reported at the hospital for the year. Hospital Administrator Dennis Pryor reported that the hospital auxiliary met for the annual holiday luncheon and they will hold a strategic meeting in January. Pryor said that hospital staff would be attending eight events from now through April in looking for an internist. Assistant Administrator Kasey Lucas reported on the electronic medical record conversion and said that CPSI will visit the hospital on December 18^th and 19^th. He also stated that the hospital is going to review their Stage 1 attestation under Medicaid rather than Medicare. He also reported that with the Health Information Exchange, the hospital would adopt an “opt out” protocol where patients can opt out of having their health information available on the health exchange between hospitals. Otherwise, they would automatically be included. Pryor said that the Hospital Foundation Advisory Board would have a luncheon on December 17^th to review and discuss the brochure. Pryor did state that he and Hospital Attorney Mark Weaver have not found anything yet that would require hospital board members to have all their federal, state and local taxes paid in order to serve. He said they would give it about 30 to 40 more days to find something or they would remove that suggestion from the bylaw review. The board approved the budgeted purchase of two demo Gastroscopes and two demo Colonoscopes from Olympus for $82,883, and the non-budgeted purchase of two Stryker EMS MF-PRO R3 stretchers for the ambulances for $12,662. Administrator Pryor asked the board members to put on their calendars to attend the Employee Service Awards banquet to be held on Saturday, January 25th at 6:30 at the Indian Trail Archery. The board then went into closed session.

The Salem Police Department released their report for the month of November. During the month, they wrote seven equipment repair orders, 16 summons to appear in court, 34 warning tickets, and 35 traffic tickets. The Salem Police Department investigated 11 accidents, five assaults, seven burglaries, three report of disorderly conduct, one report of domestic assault, six reports of domestic violence, five reports of driving while intoxicated, one report or DWI/drug intoxication, one report of driving while suspended, one report of failure to obey the lawful order of a police officer, one report of forgery, three reports of leaving the scene of an accident, one report of a lost and/or stolen license plate and one report of a minor in possession of intoxicants. The department also investigated one report of missing and/or runaway juvenile, one report of a peace disturbance, four reports of resisting and/or interfering with an arrest, one report of sexual misconduct, 13 reports of stealing, one report of tampering and one 96-hour commitment. There were two repots of distributing/delivering/ manufacturing/producing/possessing a controlled substance, one report of possession of amphetamine, one report of possession of ephedrine, four reports of possession of marijuana, one report of possession opium or derivative, three reports of possession of drug paraphernalia and report of selling heroine. The police department conducts two death investigations, received 1,572 calls for service during the month, handled 95 walk-ins to the station, and redirected 60 calls to the animal control officer. They spent 20 hours in court testifying, four hours as court bailiff and spent 24 hours teaching D.A.R.E. The calls in November included 12 calls for escorts, five calls for a prowler, eight calls for suspicious persons and/or vehicles, two intoxicated pedestrian calls, 11 calls for domestic disputes and seven calls for a wrecker. There were five 911 calls, one call for a peace disturbance, 14 calls for alarms sounding, 13 ambulance assist calls, three fire calls and one call for property damage. The Salem Police Department drove a total of 7,395 miles and arrested 23 males and 11 females during the month of November.

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