Members of Allen County Community Foundation discussed the future of fundraising with hospital trustees Tuesday evening. A 3 PERCENT raise for hospital employees was granted by trustees, effective Oct. 12.
Susan Michael, foundation director, told the board that fundraising efforts for Allen County Regional Hospital need to be taken over by another group to allow the foundation to pursue other projects. The foundation would continue to do support services for fundraising efforts, but organizing events and meeting with donors has become too much of a strain for their limited staff.
“We will wholeheartedly support you, but we can’t do it anymore,” Michael said. “We don’t have enough bodies.”
Michael and Don Copley, president of the foundation, said they would still organize this fall’s gala for them. The gala will be in celebration of the new hospital’s one-year anniversary and will recognize donors and United for Excellence for their contributions. It would also be a good opportunity to update donors on the progress made at the hospital in the last year and discuss goals for the future. The date of the gala has not been set at this time.
Because of the chaos of moving to a new hospital and the time needed to adjust and figure out expenses, the hospital has not given employees a raise since June 2012. Trustees noted an increased turnover rate among hospital employees and there was concern that the lack of raises was largely responsible.
The raises amount to $175,000 a year, or about $14,000 per month, in additional expenses to the hospital. Ron Baker, hospital chief executive officer, will not be included in that figure, and employees hired on or after June 1 would be ineligible.
In other news, Baker and several others attended a hospital board summit meeting in Wichita last week, where Dr. David Newman was a featured speaker. Baker said Newman focused on the future of medicine and how ineffective practices need to be phased out and replaced with more innovative methods that better treat patients. Baker distributed about a dozen copies of Newman’s book, “Hippocrates’ Shadow,” to each board member. He asked that each member read it, sign it, then pass it on to a local physician. He hoped to get as many health care professionals to read it as possible to generate discussion.
“It’s time to move into strategic planning (with the public),” Baker said. “How do we provide, in our region, more service at less cost?”
Board to assume fundraising efforts
