Allen County Regional Hospital is prepared to deal with a patient suffering from Ebola virus, Ron Baker, chief executive officer, told Allen County commissioners Tuesday. COMMISSIONERS approved pay raises for all county employees. JERRY DANIELS, Humboldt, was sworn in to fill the commission seat held the past 24 years by Dick Works, also of Humboldt.
“We spent a lot of time preparing, making sure we had all the appropriate equipment,” Baker said, reflecting on late last year when several U.S. citizens were stricken and transferred from Africa to domestic hospitals.
Urgency was twofold: Initially from the dangers that anyone stricken by the disease would pose and, secondly, because soldiers attached to the National Guard’s 891 Engineer Battalion, headquartered in Iola, had been notified they would be deployed to western Africa to build medical facilities. Since the virus has an incubation period, a soldier might not have shown symptoms until returning to this area.
Baker said he was relieved when the battalion’s mission was canceled.
Asked if he had any concerns about the hospital, Baker’s answer was a pragmatic, “I always have concerns. A lot of hospitals are distressed and a lot have closed” because of funding mechanisms affected by government funding (i.e., Medicare and Medicaid) and from “baby boomers wanting more services” than many hospitals currently have or can justify.
With reimbursement of all costs not being allowable, through government funding, and greater demands for services, “it’s hard to make ends meet,” he said.
Even so, Baker said that what remained from construction bonds and debt service funding, together with tax revenues, the hospital made its principle and interest payments during 2014. At their meeting Tueday night, hospital trustees approved a budget for 2015.
That the hospital retained 78 percent of its staff during the transition to its new location was a feather in its cap, he said, in the federal government’s eyes.
The hospital has 137 full-time equivalent employees.
The past month has been particularly busy, he added: “We have been scrambling to find bed space, for patients with flu and pneumonia.”
Elected officials, including commissioners, received 5 percent across-the-board raises while others received 2 percent across-the-board raises, with another 3 percent set aside for merit raises to be given at the discretion of department heads.
County Clerk Sherrie Riebel said with annual payroll going into 2015 being $3.6 million for about 90 employees, raises will require increased spending of $180,000, or a smidgen less that what a property tax levy of 2 mills would raise.
Joe Hess reported Iola Senior Citizens, Inc., donated $19,150 to educational and community organizations from proceeds of sales through its second-hand center at 223 N. State St. Money was raised by the group mainly by selling donated shirts (20 cents each), jeans and slacks (25 cents) and shoes (50 cents a pair).
The county supports the center’s utilities and maintenance to the tune of about $2,600 a year.
Sheriff Bryan Murphy told commissioners he would spend about $32,000 to update software and equipment in support of safety in the county jail. Cell doors, for example, are opened and closed by way of a computer program, and activities in the jail are monitored by computer-assisted cameras.
Murphy said on average the jail held 45 inmates, mostly from local agencies.
Weight limits for the bridge over the Neosho River at the west edge of Humboldt were approved: 12.5 tons for a single axle truck; 25 tons for a double axle box-type truck; 40 tons for a highway semi tractor-trailer. Also, speed limit for vehicles approaching from the west will be limited to 35 miles and hour.
Several appointments were filled for boards and organizations requiring representation by commissioners, and Tom Williams was elected commission chairman for the next year.
On strength of a motion made by Jim Talkington and a unanimous vote, The Register was named the official county newspaper for 2015.
ACRH ready for virus
