The most important thing is the loss of 681,000 in November and what, if anything, is being done to address this issue. The only item on the agenda directly related to this is the Acceptance of the November, 2011 unaudited financial statements. Interestingly enough, I was the only Board member (UPDATE: Apologies to Dr. Deutsch who chaired the meeting in the absence of Mike McCormick) who attended the Finance Committee meeting on 1/4 (although I arrived too late to hear any discussion regarding this disastrous result).
My questions will be if December promises to be positive. If negative, in what range will it be - slightly, moderately, hugely. Of course, Debi Stebbins never wishes to share bad news (any news actually) until she is ready so we may not learn much tomorrow night. I also want to understand the formula used to recognize revenues so I can evaluate whether this enormous loss is a glitch in some accounting parameter or, what appeared to me initially to be, the beginning of the end for the Hospital.
Specific agenda items:
1. From the closed session agenda IV. F. "Public Employee Performance Evaluation Title: Senior Executives". Once again management and presumably legal counsel (and no doubt my fellow Board members) will disagree with my assessment that this is inappropriate for closed session. It is my opinion that the Brown Act obligates the Board to address this item in open session as it is currently structured.
2. VII. A. 2. Policy No. 83: Cash payment discounts. I would actually like to see the discounts be greater than those being offered. I also would like to know what the actual collection of cash payments is from uninsured patients. My understanding is that it is less than 10 cents on the dollar. Whether that is relative to the gross charges or the discounted charges is unknown to me, but I will ask Management. I see no reason not to approve this new policy.
3. VII. B. 2. Entering into a contract for wound care center construction. I would like to postpone this until the Board understands the financing better. If we are in violation (or close to being in violation) of the Bank of Alameda loan documents then signing a contract with the Rossi Builders is irresponsible in my opinion.
4. VII. B. 4. I may withdraw my preference to be President (because I doubt that there will be a nomination unless I nominate myself so a second seems unlikely). Director Battani has been very inconsistent in her role this past year in my opinion and we have had significant differences. I certainly do not relish another year of her leadership (but I don't relish another year, actually three years, of serving on the Board given the poor quality of analysis and decision-making that passes as Board oversight).
The rest of the agenda is somewhat routine except, perhaps, for the CEO report. Stebbins has a written report which I think is an improvement. I have a question regarding the IGT money since the report has a parenthetical which states, "including our original $369,000 deposit." I am hoping that should read "plus our original $369,000 deposit.". The $587,000 number for FY2012 seems low at a rate of less than 50,000 per month so I need to check that as well. The census numbers for December will be important. Management will have those pretty well determined given the detail in the daily dashboard that is now being distributed (see the Finance packet for an example).
I will update post-meeting when I have the chance.
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