Hospital trustees agreed to pay Murray Construction $45,000 for repair work done recently to the new Allen County Regional Hospital. THE HOSPITAL’S status as a critical access hospital could be at risk, said Ron Baker, hospital chief executive officer. Hopefully, it’s nothing more than paperwork that needs to be approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. THE HOSPITAL’S pain clinic is up and running again beginning the first of February, Baker said. A Dr. Greenfield from Kansas City will be on staff at ACRH to see patients who suffer from chronic pain.
The stone exterior has had some issues as well as interior walls facing east, said David Wright, an architect and president of Hospital Facilities Group, which designed the facility.
“I have no concerns structurally about the building,” Wright said. Installing control joints where windows line the front of the hospital should correct cracks that have occurred as the hospital has settled, he said.
Murray Construction, Kansas City, Mo., is the general construction management company that oversaw the hospital’s construction.
“Murray also has made some good progress on the test-and-balance report,” Wright told trustees at their meeting Monday night. The report measures the efficiencies of the hospital’s heating and cooling systems.
“I feel comfortable releasing the $45,000. But any more, I’d need to see some significant advances. I’ll be here every month until we are done. I’m motivated to get this done,” he said.
A retainer of $110,000 is still due Murray Construction.
The miscommunication occurred when the hospital moved to its new facility in November 2013 and another inspection was required on the heels of one the hospital had done just months earlier. The hospital complied, but it seems the abbreviated review by the Joint Commission does not satisfy CMS officials.
The Joint Commission is the industry’s gold star of compliance. ACRH is one of two critical access hospitals in Kansas to use the stricter standards. Most small hospitals use guidelines set with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
The accreditation is necessary for the hospital’s classification as critical access, which, in part, enables it to receive higher reimbursements from the federal government.
“Hopefully, another inspection will not be necessary,” Baker said, to satisfy CMS officials. The inspections are difficult to schedule in a timely manner and are expensive, he said.
“He’ll start out every other week and then build up to being here once a week,” Baker said.
Hospital aesthetics front and center
