Archive for April, 2012

I’m pleased to announce that the Friends of Hospice (FoH) is presenting an evening of food, musical entertainment, and silent auction to raise funds for the remodeling of Room 112 at Mendocino Coast District Hospital into “Room with a Soul” for those who need end of life care, as well as those who are healing. The event takes place on Saturday, May 19th, at the Portuguese Hall. Festivities begin at 5 pm and a family style spaghetti dinner will be served from 5:30 to 8 pm.

An evening of entertainment

Conceived as an evening’s entertainment, the event starts with music and an open bar at 5 pm. Appetizers will accompany entertainment before, during, and after the main course in a bistro setting. Local wines, as well as beers from the North Coast Brewing Company, have been donated for the event.

Family style dinner, musical entertainment and more

Dinner will feature homemade pasta sauces with options for vegetarian and gluten-free. “Mouthwatering, hand-made meatballs will be abundant, as well as family-style service of bread, salad, and small desserts,” notes FoH volunteer Cynthia Wall. A silent auction and raffle will add to the excitement, with businesses and individuals contributing generous gifts and certificates. At 5 pm local song-man, Harry Rosensteel, will sing songs we all remember. Then to end with a sizzle, “Torch Jazz” featuring Ira Rosenberg on piano with Zida Borcich vocalizing, picks up the pace at 6:30 and closes the place down at 9PM.

Yesterday I wrote about all of the construction activity that has taken place at MCDH over the past 6 years.  All of the construction projects have been necessary for the continued operation of MCDH.  There have been other factors that have affected our hospital during the past 2 + years that have also had a dramatic effect on financial performance.

As the economy has worsened in recent years, the effect has been felt not only at the local level but also in our Nation in Washington, D.C. and our State.  In 2009 a new program was created at the Federal level called the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program.  The RAC program is designed to allow Federally designated (RAC) contractors to have open access to Medicare hospital admissions from prior years.  The RACs are looking for overpayments made by Medicare to hospitals and, in the early years, they were permitted to keep a percentage of every dollar that they recovered for the government.   The program sounds reasonable. 

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Although the past few weeks have consumed the hospital administration team as we work to balance the budget, one thing we never  forget about is the importance of good patient care. Our patients are our number one focus and our number one priority.

With that in mind, it is always a pleasure to get feedback about the care we have provided.

I am especially pleased to share a personal, hand-written note I received from Jeannie Alderson of Gualala:

“I recently had a condition making it necessary to spend an extended period of time in your hospital. I would like to commend every member of the staff that I encountered. You all made a very unpleasant illness into a much more pleasant experience. You all seemed to truly care about your patients as human beings, not just a job.

I will always remember this and be grateful.” She even included a red, heart-colored “Love” postage stamp.

On behalf of our entire team — our doctors, nurses, technicians, therapists and patient access coordinators — we thank you, Jeannie Alderson.