VTH Board Minutes 5/31/2018

3:30 Agenda:

Necropsy Funds - Update

• JW has looked at historical spending by services and has adjusted the budget to reflect use.  The subsidy funds provided by the VDL were exhausted earlier in the year.  The Dean has released money to restore the subsidy but has limited the fund to $50K for the remainder of FY18 and all of FY19.  The board was provided distribution of funds that were being proposed and the updated policy.  The board approved the policy and fund distribution with the exception of adding $500 to cardiology and removing that amount from rehabilitation medicine.
  
  Some discussion was had regarding teaching money assigned to services.  The board asked that this be tabled due to some services spending the majority of designated money at the end of the year.  Board members were reminded that the discretionary teaching funds assigned to services was for the purpose of offsetting client charges for procedures that provided exceptional teaching value for HO or students, not to purchase supplies.
  
  Discretionary adjustments are to be discussed at a later time.

3:40 VTH Shadowing / Outreach program

• Drs. Fan and Whittington have worked to define the work study/job shadow program in the VTH that involves the participation of minors.  JW will update the associated policy to reflect these protocols.  The program has been approved by the Executive Director of Public Safety and requires that two unit representatives undergo background checks as the responsible persons for the program.  The program must be re-approved annually.

3:45 VTH Organization Modeling

• The VCM faculty have voted to convert the Chief of Staff position (50%) to a Hospital Director position (100%).  In light of that decision, this is an opportunity for VTH reorganization.  The plan calls for replacing the open Associate Hospital Director with an Assistant Hospital Director.  The VTH Administrative Team will report directly to the VTH Director.  The supporting role of Jessica McClain will be reassigned to the VTH Business Office/CVM Business Service Center to support VTH faculty/staff.  There is some discussion about reassigning the storeroom staff to facilities and the caretakers to the VTH or to facilities.  The Board members unanimously agreed to the proposed organization model with the exception that they felt more discussion was warranted regarding the reporting line for the VTH Director – to the VCM Dept. Head, to the Dean, or to both.  JW will initiate the creation of the Assistant Director position.

4:10 Service Equipment Requests 

• All requested minor equipment requests (<$5K) were approved with the exception of neurology’s request for necropsy funds.  The equipment requested by zoo med will be paid for our of Vet Med South Clinic renovations.  Alyssa Duncan will be working with services to acquire approved equipment so as to negotiate best pricing for bundles.  Accounts to be charged are the associated service operational FOP.
  
  

4:15 Capital Equipment Requests 

• The 128 Slice CT scanner (refurbished) was approved and will be paid for out of FY18 operations.  Need to coordinate with facilities to determine construction costs associated with installation.  Idea was to keep the current 16 slice CT and install the additional unit in the radiation therapy room (current).  The Surgical tables and flash autoclave requested by surgery have been approved to be purchased immediately using affiliate year funds.  Zoo Med requested equipment (surgical monitor and endoscopic equip) will be funded out of South Clinic renovation account.  The Ophthalmology request for the Cryounit and probes, imaging request for dual reading monitors, and a display board for oncology were not approved.  The imaging requested US unit and PET/CT scanner were deferred.  All other capital requested equipment was approved to purchase during FY19 but will be staged based on availability of funds.  Alyssa Duncan will coordinate purchasing.

4:45 

Updates: Budget projections, energy recovery fees, facilities 

• At this time, it looks like we will be proposing a fee increase in Vet Star.  More information will come. 

• We have identified that we have a surplus of money in the Energy Recovery account and will decrease the automatic surcharge in VetStar to 2%.  This will save clients money and will still provide the funds owed to campus for energy recovery.

• We are continuing to work with project managers and end users to develop the plans for the capital project.  The interventional suite will likely cost ~1.2 M and we are in need of help from Advancement to identify potential donors.  Dr. Fries advised that he had a lead for a possible friend of cardiology who had means to become a significant donor.  JW passed that information to C. Dietrich.