VTH Board Minutes 3/23/22

Updates: Info Only

Personnel Updates

• Faculty Search Updates – Offers out: Dr. Dongaonkar (sas), Dr. Kato (ecc), Dr. Shores (UCC), Dr. Walker (ETFARMS), Dr. Peters (neuro), Dr. Gray (Equine SX). Dr. Topulos (SAS). Searches: SAIM (1 confirmed candidate, working on scheduling 2nd), Ophtho (1 candidate May 14), Shelter (1 new, Dr. Frazier), Anesthesia (2 candidates), Cardiology (at least 1 candidate), Imaging (no bites), ZCA (3 candidates), Zoo/Wildlife (4 candidates), Clin Path (?), Ortho Sx (actively recruiting), LAER (open), anatomic path (open), MDVC (hired two and still 1 open, interviewing), Rad Onc (open), Surg Onc to reopen, Anatomic Path zoopath (2)
  • VTH Admin – Sheela Senguttvan (purchasing), first round of interview for VTH Admin Aide, S. Camp position open effective 3/25 – search request submitted.

Facilities

• Lobby renovation on schedule – Phase 2 to kick off April 6th (see below)
• Orthopedic Sx rounds room – plans are underway (SAC 160). Will likely move 2nd week of April.
• Pressure walkway to move to SAC 168 1st week of April. 
• Employee Boarding Program cages relocated to Junior Surgery runs temporarily. 
• SAC storage – shelving units pending, space assignment soon.
• FARMS unloading – drive work done, posts installed, gates have been ordered.
• Equine Sx Reno next phase

Programs

• Purina Nutrition Resource Room – Ribbon Cutting Open House April 13th.

Other

• Vet Med Research Day – VTH on Emergency Only April 27th.
• Update Teleradiology – We have not been able to test-run Vital Rads yet and have no leads on radiologists interested in a hybrid model.

VTH Report Summary : Budget Update 

• This month the VTH received a number of gift installments which has helped the P/L report. Current projection is that FY22 will result in neutral revenue over expenses.
• Service receiving and revenue data in Box.
• $1.5 M Cash balance reserve plus 3 months of expense ($4.5M) 
• Some cash can be transferred to plant to be used to fund some facility needs
• Consider increasing deferred maintenance from $250K to $300K (FY22 April – already spent $254K)
• Currently, $1M deficit for FY23 in light of all capital requests and anticipated 2% increase.
• Linear Accelerator Loan forgiveness FY23 ($200K +$65K tax annually)
• Primary cost - salaries

Faculty Staff Boarding

• Update – Members of the boarding program met for open discussion. Decision points: nominal annual fee for enrollment, assigned housing for individual animals, majority of caging located in designated ward (54 SAC), few designated runs around SAC/VMSC. Oversight of program by a member board. M. Ridgway agreed to chair.

IL Marathon

• Need input RE rerouting traffic – half marathon route encircles VTH. Saturday April 30th, 7:30-11 AM. VTH will message to personnel re: arrival and route. Director’s office to speak with race officials re VTH needs

VTH Clinical Research Policy

• Current policy approved (policy Bill306a: Research Adjustment - Clinical Research)This policy supports clinical research being performed within the VTH and is in line with the CVM Strategic Plan. It has resulted in a tremendous work load on the back-end, resulting in employee turnover.

Options for managing workload include:

1. Keep the process the same but find a software solution to streamline the process (solutions have been explored and none seem applicable at this time)
2. Suspend the policy so that discounts are not applied (this does not align with the CVM strategic initiatives)
3. Create a VTH FOP with funds equal to the annual research subsidy and allow faculty participating in clinical research to ‘apply’ for funds to be moved to research accounts (this is difficult to reconcile with grants and contracts and would need to be administered fairly.
4. Revert to the process of creating research specific codes in the HIS for charges (would need to create 20% discounted codes and 80% discounted codes, then would need to audit to ensure that discounted codes were not being used for nonresearch purposes; also front end work to create codes)
5. Registered patients coming in for clinical trials with unique MR# (will be problematic for patients also needing non-research related care and will result in multiple MR# for same animal)
6. Create research bundle when project approved with VTH so that discounted items are linked and charged to the research 
   account in a manner that already reflects the agreed upon discount (C500 code, there could be one code per project but some projects are complicated and the bundle changes between visits, the would require special actions for lab work and imaging requests)

There was consensus that the discount should be kept and also support for the process to be streamlined.

ACTION ITEMS: Sara Kennedy will be assuming these processes until S. Camp’s replacement is in place. VTH will convene meeting to include Sara and R. Kamerer to explore options.

SAC Client Receiving

Phase 2 plan:

Effective April 6th – August 1st

Between 6 AM-6PM: SAC client parking moving to F25 and F26 (displaced permit holders to use SAC client parking spaces in front of SAC). Client entrance west door on north side of LAC 100. Admissions desks in that location. Client waiting LAC 100. 

After hours, client parking and receiving as usual.