Sublette County Rural Health Care meeting
May 23, 2007 Special Meetings: Reporter’s Notes
by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!
May 23, 2007
The Sublette County Rural Health Care Board held two Special Meetings on Wednesday, May 23rd at the Sublette County Courthouse Commissioner’s Room in Pinedale. Present were Board members Dave Racich, Walt Bousman, and Bill Budd, and SCRHC Director Randy Johnson. (Pinedale Online Notes correction: Garry Eiden was not present at this meeting.)
Appointment of new Board member: Kenneth Shriver
The first Special Meeting went immediately into an executive session for the stated purpose of “Appointment of a Public Official”. Upon coming out of Executive Session, the Board appointed Kenneth Shriver of Pinedale as an Interim Board Member to replace the opening left by Jud Faler. There was no public discussion about selection of applicants for this position when the Board came out of Executive Session before the Board voted. Shriver was present at this meeting.
Budget
The Board then adjourned their Special Meeting and went into a second Special Meeting. The only agenda item for the second Special Meeting was the new business of a Budget Review by the Chief Financial Officer Lorraine Gatzke.
Staffing
The Board is working to find staffing to fill current and future medical staffing positions at the two county Clinics. They are also needing more EMS positions and administrative positions. For Marbleton staffing, they anticipate needing 2 MDs, 1 RN, an X-Ray technician and a Lab tech. For Pinedale, they are looking at needing 3 MDs, 1 RN, 1 Director of Nursing, 1 Director of Rad, Clerical Support, an X-Ray technician and a Lab tech. Additionally, they are looking at needing 2 billing staff, 2 business administration staff, and 16 full-time paid EMS staff positions. The Board welcomed Ken Shriver to the Board and then adjourned the second meeting.
Pinedale Medical Clinic Update – after meeting conversation with Director Randy Johnson
After the meetings, we spoke with SCRHC Director Randy Johnson and got an update on the building progress for the new Pinedale Medical Clinic.
“The Center is on schedule and on budget,” he said. All roof work is almost done. The floor is poured and skylights are going in. The architects and engineers are looking at some structural aspects of the layout that need to be adjusted with the decision to get some new equipment in sooner than they had planned; specifically a CAT scan machine. They are also updating the X-Ray capability. “It will be State-of-the-Art,” said Johnson. “It will be completely compatible with radiologists in Jackson,” he explained. Two of the staff people they plan to hire will be highly trained RAD techs who have 4 year degrees to operate the new equipment. One will be in Pinedale and the other will work at the Marbleton Clinic.
Other Points:
New Medical Jobs
Johnson also made two comments when we spoke to him after the meetings that we feel were important to note. The first is regarding staffing. The Board is actively working on defining needed positions and figuring out budgeting. They will be significantly ramping up their efforts on hiring qualified people to fill these positions once they have their needs quantified and position descriptions defined. Anyone who is reading this, who has medical experience and is interested in moving to the Pinedale area to work, this is a “heads up” that there will be a number of announcements appearing in the next couple of months for medical job openings. The Board is, and will be, looking for doctors, RNs, technicians, full-time paid EMTs, administrative staff with medical experience, and more. The Board is still working on final details, but expect job announcements to start appearing within the next two months or so. July is budget month, so jobs should start being advertised sometime around then. If you are interested now, feel free to contact Johnson and ask questions: 307-367-2099, randyj@wyoming.com.
Clinic Floorplans
The second comment Johnson made was regarding the floor plan design for the new Marbleton Clinic, which has not yet been constructed. We asked if the Board was planning to make the floor plan of the Marbleton Clinic similar to the layout of the Pinedale Clinic, since some people have pointed out that if they had similar floor plans, it would be easier for staff to work between the two clinics and find things more easily. Johnson said they will be consciously trying to have the floor plans of both clinics be “as close as possible” to each other, but they won’t be exact mirror images of each other. There will be slight differences, but the working feel of the floor plans will be very similar in both clinics.
Next Meetings
The next regular meeting of the Sublette County Rural Health Care Board will be on June 13th. The companion group, the Health Care Coalition, will meet on Thursday, May 24th at 7:30 PM at the Pinedale Library.
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