VTH Board Minutes 2/28/2019
VTH Hospital Board Meeting Minutes
Updates: Info Only
Personnel – Dr. Lauren Forsythe will be joining us in May as our new pharmacist. Kara (pharmacy tech) will be retiring and we will be hiring her successor. We continue to experience turn-over in our client services staff but are actively working through the challenges. Vicki will be retiring soon. April
Facilities –
- Capital projects are on schedule. We have begun conversations with marketing and advancement to develop proposals for donor support of Intervention suite.
- LAC admissions – remove waiting room wall and add window art, hallway branding.
- SAC 245, 240a and LAC 201 – painting, lights, ceiling, AV. Split between VTH and VCM
- CT location – see below
Other
Micro will no longer be picking up micro samples. Bring to VDL directly.
New postcard for ER services referrals sent to RDVMs.
Welcome back Dr. Fries J - Term ends Nov. 2019
3:00 VTH Board Meeting Schedule
The VTH Board has been meeting once monthly in an attempt to minimize scheduled meetings. Often VTH Board meeting extend beyond 5 PM creating a hardship on members as they try to meet after-hours needs. Options include: increase frequency of meetings, schedule meeting earlier in day to allow for 5PM end, other suggestions?
General consensus is that we should start 3PM, try to have a hard stop at 5:30. ACTION ITEM: VTH Board meeting invite has been update to 3 PM start time.
Budget Summary: Cash
Anna Lee Fenger provided an overview of VTH cash reserves and commitments: Current and estimated for FY19 and FY20
Current commitments ($6,257,500)
- Surgery/ECC Expansion project - $4,611,500
- CT scanner purchase - $590,000
- CT scanner renovation - $150,000
- Equine surgery table - $45,000
- Equipment for expansion project - $700,000
- Technician salary adjustment - $161,000
Current reserve - $1,500,000
Current cash to cover commitments ($6,471,971)
We are doing a good job of supporting our growth and reinvestment, and will need to continue to do so. ACTION ITEM: JW to find out if VTH has commitment for RX Clean Room Completion.
Equine Sports Medicine
Section input, possible expanded scope – We need a lameness examination area. We also need to determine if the treadmill is functional. It may be better to consider an all-species sports med facility. We will call a meeting in 2 weeks. Equine section.
UPDATE: Equine meeting scheduled for March 25th, Treadmill engineer evaluated the existing machine and believes that it is feasible to upgrade/update it. Will be sending quote.
Radiation Oncology Staffing
Radiation Oncology is requesting consideration for funding a technician to provide anesthesia coverage for these cases. See document provided.
General board consensus - this is a position we should fund AND there needs to be some support of generalize staffing levels, especially for anesthesia service, for the VTH.
Report from Research Subcommittee and Policy Proposal
Ideally we would determine ‘cost’ of a procedure and add a standard % overhead fee. For now, we are recommending VetStar price discounted by 80% for procedures being paid for by a research account. ACTION ITEM: JW and NL will modify the policy to reflect board discussion and will disseminate for review.
CT Location
Dean Constable agrees with the Board’s assessment regarding pros and cons associated with CT location. He has approved the location of the CT scanner in the SE corner of LAC. Associated renovation needed as follows: 1) revise area behind Med. Rec. in basement of SAC to store LAC records currently in RB-19. 2) move records in RB-19 and renovate space with electric outlets to accommodate freezers in RB-23. 3) move freezers from RB-23 to RB-19. 4) remove cobalt source from XI-2. 5) move I131 cat room in RB-13 to XI-2. 6) move Dr. Canisso’s lab from RB-21 to RB-13. 7) renovate RB-21 and RB-23 for new location of 128 slice CT scanner. Removal of cobalt will provide a $100K rebate, $150K already in place, remainder out of deferred fiscal FY20. Total cost is ~$300K.
UPDATE: Sue Hartman was able to negotiate a good price on the CT equipment, including the fluoroscopy component requested by our imaging group. The budget the VTH Board approved for the equipment is sufficient. A purchase order has been submitted and we must wait for campus to issue approval but the process has been initiated. The work in Med. Rec. has started.
Private Cremations Services
We are changing the process for handling cremains after private cremation. Three options have been evaluated; 2 of which are viable. See document provided.
Services will be responsible for clay paws and owner supplies. Set amount of time, send reasonable time.
The Board members voted to approve the least expensive of the two vendors.
UPDATE: Conversations with both vendors resulted in price adjustment. Due to all other factors being equal, we are moving forward with Sunset as our private cremation vendor.