Haxtun Health Board of Directors hears mandate update

The COVID vaccine mandate discussion continues at Haxtun Health. Chief Executive Officer Dewane Pace gave an update to members of the Haxtun Health Board during a recent month-end meeting on Monday, Sept. 27. Pace said the administration team has held multiple all-staff meetings with the Haxtun Health team, as well as many one-on-one conversations, while working to communicate policy, exemption processes and the intent of the hospital district.

Pace said that on Aug. 30, the State Health Department voted six to one to pass an emergent rule requiring all licensed healthcare facilities in the State of Colorado to achieve a 100-percent vaccination rate for employees. The emergent rule, he said, allowed for a process for hospitals that believed they would not be able to achieve 100-percent vaccination rate to file a waiver, write a policy that included exemptions for medical and religious reasons and to implement said policy.

He explained that Haxtun Health filed for a waiver on Sept. 3, just four days after the emergent rule was announced. The State Health Department then changed the emergent rule and process for filing a waiver on Sept. 17, 18 days after announcement of the rule. The new process required a re-filing of the waiver on behalf of Haxtun Health, which was completed within one hour of receiving the changed of process.

Haxtun Health, Pace said, was notified by the State Health Department that the facility was the first hospital in the State to file a waiver. That wavier is considered granted for 90 days.

Our focus for this, Pace told the Board, is to keep the hospital open and to keep the team intact to be available for patients, each other and the Haxtun Community.

In his Chief of Staff report, Dr. Ben Stephenson said Haxtun Health has continued to see an increase in the number of patients who test positive for COVID, including three inpatient hospitalizations. The good news, he said, is none of the positive cases were critically ill enough to require transfer to a higher level of care.

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer and BioNTech booster shoots for high risk populations and those immunosuppressed, those 65 and older and health care workers.

Haxtun Health began administering the Pfizer booster vaccination on Sept. 30. For more information on receiving the booster, for those who received their initial dose, call the Haxtun Health Clinic at (970) 774-6187.

The Extended Care Unit, which is full with 19 patients as of the meeting date, has administered the booster vaccination to patients who were vaccinated in the beginning. Those who refused the COVID vaccine initially were offered the vaccine again in anticipation of potential rise in COVID cases as the season progresses.

Stephenson said Haxtun Health’s inpatient census has been higher than expected and earlier than usual. The medical staff, the local doctor said, will be meeting in early October to formulate a surge plan as health care facilities enter the busiest time of year.

Flu vaccines, he said, are also now available. Stephenson said he expects this year to be a higher than normal flu season. The CDC’s guidelines recommend routine annual flu vaccinations for all people six months of age, however, the CDC has decreased the age that can receive the quadrivalent flu shot from four to two.

In her Chief Community Relations Officer report, Julia Biesemeier told board members phase one of the infrastructure project which covers the ECU roof replacement, rooftop units and implementation of the new controls system is nearing completion. Thermostats are being replaced with digital read-out devices in each upstairs location.

Phase two she said includes boiler room abatement, which is complete, and the company Tatro has begun their work in the boiler room. That work is expected to take about 25 days.

The boilers service the hot water heat within the building, Biesemeier explained. She said once those boilers go down, they will not go back up until all phases of the project are compete. The heat sources for patients will be the existing units that are within the rooms. Supplemental electric heat will be supplied in the building, where needed, by the company working on this portion of the project, Iconergy.

As for the main street clinic, construction along Haxtun’s main street continues, Pace said.

“The main street clinic project continues with a lot of below ground including footers being poured, lots of rebar and reinforcing as we prepare to put the steel deck, or floor, on the building in the coming weeks,” said Pace. “Shortly after that you should see steel start to go up and the building take shape.”

Pace explained that the steel has been delivered and is being stored near the construction site waiting to be installed. “We are still counting on having a building that is weathered in before winter sets in,” he said.

In other busines:

• Chief Financial Officer Joleen Stroyek gave an overview of financials for August month end. She said total operating expenses were four percent over budget; and year-to-date gross patient revenue, as of Aug. 31, was $10,157,000, or eight percent over budget. Net income totaled $1,917,000;

• The following credentials were approved: Bridget Lauro, MD, radiology; Virginia Scroggins-Young, MD, radiology; Britt Severson, MD, family medicine; Timothy Hsu, MD, family medicine; Richard Hammack, NP, family medicine; Paul Meredith, CRNAQ, anesthesia; Samuel Sims, CRNA, anesthesia; and Gary Kliewer, CRNA, anesthesia.