Lyon County commissioners and the Newman Regional Health Board of Trustees met for a joint meeting Wednesday afternoon at the hospital.
Hospital officials shared their progress on the strategic plan for 2010 to 2013, which they are in the process of developing.
Several statistics are used to draw up the strategic plan. The service area was divided into primary and second service areas. Lyon County is the hospital’s primary service area, encompassing 85 percent of the hospital’s patient mix. Chief Executive Officer Robert Driewer said that 85 percent of inpatients have Lyon County origin with the remaining patients coming from Strong City, Cottonwood Falls, Osage City, Lebo and other areas. Outpatient services are much of the same, Driewer said, with 81 percent of patients coming from Lyon County.
Driewer said the age of the population has a good distribution. Between 2008 and 2013, the over-65 category is projected to go up.
A challenge for the hospital when doing a strategic plan for charity care and bad debt is that more than 30 percent of the population in Lyon County has an annual income of less than $25,000.
Demographics is another challenge. Seventy-three percent of the population is Caucasian but there is a growing minority population in Lyon County.
“We need to be cognizant of that and not assume that just because we can understand English and understand what is printed on the wall that everybody else can,” Driewer said.
Newman Regional Health is holding its own in other counties, Driewer added.
“We have captured a fair number of inpatient admissions from Chase County,” he said.
The draft objectives for 2009 to 2012 are “to deliver comprehensive health care to Lyon County and the surrounding area; to achieve information technology integration compliance; and to develop a clinically integrated delivery model that provides high quality, cost-effective care.”
In other matters, the two boards took a tour of the hospital’s third floor, which should be completed next week. The floor will integrate units to maximize staff time.
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