The Garfield County Hospital District (GCHD) would like to update the community on continuing operations and work. The District is working with an architectural firm on designing the addition for the CT scanner, upgrading the electrical infrastructure in the old hospital building, and adding an HVAC system to the hospital side. Some key changes to the project have come about during this design process that have increased the estimated budget. We will need to build a retaining wall along the east lawn where the addition will sit and we will have to upgrade our emergency generator to handle the increased load of the CT scanner and HVAC system. This has brought the total project budget up to roughly $3.4 million.

The great news is that we will not be using any District funds or levy funds for this project. The entire project will be covered through several grant funding sources: a legislative impact grant through the Department of Commerce, grant funding from the Washington State Rural Facilities Capital Grant Partnership Fund, and funding received from Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the Rural Provider Relief Fund through the CARES Act. We are still on schedule for submitting plans to the state for approval in the fall, opening for bids from contractors this winter, and then beginning construction in spring of 2021. This is an exciting endeavor for the District, as we know it will be a great benefit for the community.

Continued to work with Allevant, a joint venture between the Mayo Clinic and Select Medical, to build up our transitional care program. The second set of Allevant educational courses are underway. These educational courses will focus on clinical training to enhance our care of patients with cardiac and respiratory issues. We continue to build on weekly rounds involving the patient, their family, and the whole medical team to promote holistic care for the patients. We now have a full time Transitional Nurse Care Coordinator who is working diligently to help build and market this program.

Advertising brochures have been sent out and other discharge planners from other facilities have been contacted. The Allevant website should be completed soon. Zoom marketing meetings have been scheduled in November with Sacred Heart, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center and Tri-State Memorial Hospital. Allevant is sending monthly reports for our Medicare days, number of referrals for admissions and discharge reports for trends.

We are excited to announce that we have a new clinic provider that is signed to a two-year contract. Melanie, Hashagen, ARNP, will be re-locating from Colorado. Her Washington licensure and DEA license are pending but once approved, she will be heading our way. In September, she had a site visit to Pomeroy and was very impressed with the hospitality of our community, the beautiful Blue Mountains, and is looking forward to joining the GCHD medical team.