Newman Regional Health Board of Trustees voted during Wednesday’s board meeting to approve $184,272 for three capital requests.
The first request was $33,000 for a new surgical table. Holly French, chief financial officer, said the surgical table is an unbudgeted capital request that is needed because of increased surgical volume.
“In order to treat patients in the Pain Clinic, a surgical table must be moved from one of the surgery suites,” the written capital request read. “During those times, we are unable to use that surgical suite for other procedures.”
The purchase of a new surgical table will allow staff to use all of the suites at any given time.
The second request totaled $44,270 for a scripting/synch computer tool. A previous budgeted amount of $20,000 for the software has been funded. The additional request was necessary, French said, because the server needed was not planned or budgeted for.
The scripting/synch software will allow staff to transfer information from other programs to the other modules rather than having to be typed into the computer manually.
The third request, for diet office management software, totaled $107,000. A previous budgeted amount was $88,250. The system the hospital now has implemented is to print out paper menus and distribute them to the patients.
The patients have to manually fill them out, many times with the help of nursing staff. The process is completely manual and can be time-consuming for the nurses, French said.
The new software will allow Nutrition Service staff to visit patients at bedside and create menus based on preferences. A savings of $2,856 will be seen once menu printing is eliminated.
The diet office management software will be phased in. Phase two will come at a later date. French said she would bring information about phase two in a future meeting.