Hospital construction in progress

Nearly all of the footings have been dug and concrete poured for Phase 1 of Community Hospital's building and remodeling project, Hospital President Jim Ulrich said.

The final bid opening was completed Dec. 16, and the bids are continuing to come in under budget, he said. "We're where we had hoped to be, coming in under the initial construction budget."

Steel for the new patient wing should begin arriving in January, he said.

The hospital reached another important benchmark Nov. 24, receiving basic level trauma certification for another four years, which qualifies the hospital for certain designations and reimbursement.

Ulrich said the hospital is also on track to comply with federal directives for improved use of electronic medical records, with incentives for complying by 2011 and penalties for failure to comply after 2015.

"This is an extremely challenging initiative for small rural hospitals," Ulrich said. "Compliance will take a well planned team effort and I am proud of the dedication, vision, and leadership of our healthcare team to meet these challenges head on for the benefit of our healthcare providers and the patients we serve."

The initiative, part of the recovery act, is designed to simplify health care delivery through interoperability of records between the clinics, hospital and patient.

In other business at December's board of directors meeting, Max Abercrombie and Bruce Bair were welcomed to the board as new members, along with Brian Esch who was re-elected to the board and elected to the chairmanship.

Board and hospital officials also expressed their appreciation to Drs. Patsy Houghton and Dirk Gray, who retired from the board, as chairwoman and treasurer, respectively.