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Home  News Latest Medical center board seats new officers, trustee
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Medical center board seats new officers, trustee |
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Wednesday, 30 July 2008 |
By Buck Traxler, I-O Editor
At their regular board meeting Thursday evening the Pondera Medical Center board of trustees elected new offices and also seated a new member.
Ted Kronebusch was nominated and elected to board chairman by a unanimous vote.
County Commissioner Joe Christiaens was elected to be the new vice-chairman.
Rita Rae Weisgram was nominated and re-elected to her post of secretary and Cheryl Bakken was elected to be the board treasurer.
Brent Gaylord of Valier was introduced as a new board member.
Interim CEO Rick Palagi introduced Lori Ann Sullivan to the board of trustees.
Sullivan will be acting as an interim Human Resources Director (HRD), a position she holds for the Kalispell Regional Medical Center. She was in Washington, D.C. for seven years before making the move to Kalispell to work for KMRC.
A search is on for a new Human Resources Director for the PMC. The former HRD, Laura Elliott, recently resigned to take a similar position at a larger health center in Wyoming.
Palagi also noted that expenses for the month of July were under budget. “Everyone did a good job of managing expenses,” he said.
There was a discussion of posting the unofficial minutes in a draft form of the PMC board meeting on a bulletin board for employees.
Kronebusch was in favor of the idea, however, Palagi was a little hesitant to do so without some review of the minutes. “They are never right the first time,” he said, adding, “I would hate to get them some misinformation.” This item will be reviewed.
A report was given on the PMC Wellness Center that is well on its way to shattering attendance use from last year.
In 2007, there were 10,904 total people who used the Center. For the first six months of 2008, 7,698 have used the Center, compared to 6,211 for the first six months in 2007.
Last year there were 5,026 general visits in the first six months and 8,912 for the year. Through the first six months of 2008, 6,060 people have used the center.
In 2007, 1,455 PMC employees used the Wellness Center, 711 in the first six months of the year. Already, both of the figures have been shattered with employees using the Center 1,258 times in 2008. Charlene Bouma manages the Wellness Center.
Palagi gave a brief report on the impact of the PMC to the local economy. A full report was put together for the Montana Hospital Association by the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.
He noted that the PMC is the county’s largest private employer and accounted for 11.4 percent of the county’s non-farm wage and salary jobs and 11 percent of its total wages.
The hospital has three multipliers that the Chamber of Commerce or Port Authority and other interested entities like to look at in order to help attract outside business.
The PMC has an employment multiplier of 1.33, a compensation multiplier of 1.24 and an output multiplier of 1.37.
The first number, 1.33, may be interpreted to mean that for every job at the PMC, another 0.33 jobs are supported in the county.
Another way to look at this is that if the PMC closed their doors, an additional 68 non-hospital related jobs would go away.
The number 1.24 means that for every dollar in wages and benefits paid to the PMC employees, another 24 cents of wages are created in other local jobs in the county.
Or, put another way, if the PMC suddenly went away, about $1,222,191 in additional wages would be lost from other jobs in the county.
The last number indicates that for every dollar of goods and services produced by the PMC, the output in the county increases by another 37 cents.
Palagi noted that a good healthcare system, along with your good education system, gives the community an advantage when competing for business.
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