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The Eureka Springs City Council liked what it heard regarding the recent designation change of the city’s hospital.
At its regular meeting on Monday, Jan. 22, the council heard from Kent Turner, chair of the hospital commission, regarding recent audit reports and the recent designation change from a Critical Access Hospital to a Rural Emergency Hospital.
“From my perspective as an accountant and from my perspective as chairman of the commission, the hospital is in good shape,” Turner told council members, adding that the news of the designation change comes at a good time as the hospital was struggling financially and its future was in doubt.
“At the end of the year, we have a little over $6 million,” Turner said. “And the reason we have a little over $6 million is as of last week, we were in fact granted approval of becoming a Rural Emergency Hospital. The state had already given us $2.4 million as part of that transaction. … There will be another $2.4 million coming once we get through the process and get everything approved.
“But, we are no longer a Critical Access Hospital. As of December 1, 2023, we are a Rural Emergency Hospital and we will be reworking our operations to come in compliance with the Rural Emergency Hospital. The reason for the $5 million was to allow us funds to, in fact, change things, change operations, change facilities to become a Rural Emergency Hospital.”
Council member Autumn Slane asked Turner other than no longer offering inpatient services, what differences the designation change will mean.
“The biggest thing is, it gives us funding to make sure that we’re equipped to handle emergencies,” Turner said. “The hospital has gone from a hospital to what’s really a big emergency room so that we can handle all kinds of emergencies.”
Turner explained that in the new format patients can be kept for 24 hours, sometimes longer, for observation, but then a patient would have to be transported to a hospital classified Level One or Level Two for further treatment.
The conversation regarding the new designation came after Turner shared recent audit reports from 2021 and 2022.
“You’ll see that in both ’22 and ’21 we had net losses,” he told council members, adding that the hospital was losing “about a quarter of a million dollars a month.”
The hiring of a full-time chief financial officer has been a positive move as hospital commissioners now have a better grasp of budgetary issues, Turner assured the council.
OTHER COUNCIL ACTION
In other council action, a unanimous vote passed the second reading, by title only, of a proposed ordinance revising trash collections in the city — with one amendment.
The proposed ordinance now reads that trash service will allow residents to use one bag, up to 35 gallons, or a trash can up to 35 gallons. Anything more than that placed on the curb more than that will need to be tagged. Tags can be purchased at city hall or another designated location for $2, according to the amendment.
Council member Harry Meyer suggested the one-bag limit after hearing from constituents and Mayor Butch Berry suggested changing the extra-bag tag fee from $1.75 to $2 because of city hall not always having quarters available for change. Any extra bags not tagged will be left behind, the proposed ordinance reads.
The council also approved a resolution approving the 2024 budget.
The budget includes estimated general fund revenues of $6,007,625 and general fund expenditures of $5,616,191.
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