August was a surprisingly good month financially for Memorial Hospital and Manor, according to Interim CFO Gregg Majors and Rusty Davis, Authority Treasurer, who made the monthly report at the September Authority meeting on Tuesday. A net income of $318,228 was reported, with a year-to-date net income of 229,722.

Compare that to August of 2016, when a month loss of $545,082, and a year-to-date loss of $1,171,423 were the figures.  Majors termed it surprising, as August is typically a slower month. They are optimistically looking forward to even better months in the fall.

Lee Harris, director of support services, presented a list of capital expense requests that included:

• Spacelabs Telemetry System Amplifier replacement at $7,378

• Renovation of Pre-admission, testing and Admissions area, $247,026

• Renovation of Inventory Storage Area for Pharmacy $18,293.

All were approved by the Board, leaving $16,078 of the FY2018 Capital Equipment Budget remaining, and $466,693 of the FY2018 Capital Improvement Budget remaining.

Harris also presented an active list of prospective physicians that are being recruited and going through the interview process.

Majors, who is also the Interim CEO, gave a monthly report, which included the progress on the search for a new CEO.  Local preliminary interviews were begun this week in search of a list of finalists.

He announced the hiring of Heather Long as the Project Coordinator for the Georgia HEART Program and said to date there had been $64,000 donated before the $25,000 that was received on Tuesday from First National Bank.

It was also reported that there are currently seven grants in play for the hospital and there is a grants project manager on staff. Majors said there was a possibility the hospital could have as much as $2,000,000 in grants by next year, making it possible for the hospital to address many of the community health concerns.

A new Emergency Room Service contract is on the horizon.

The Community Health Fair will be held in November at the YMCA, while the health fairs for employees of the City, County and School Systems will begin the week of Sept. 25.

Majors was very complimentary of the way the staff planned and prepared for what could have been a disastrous Hurricane Irma. Many stayed overnight, including physicians and other staff, showing they knew how to follow the disaster plan.

The Pharmacy 340-B will be in place in January. The hospital website is being revised and they are catching up on the information systems.

A letter of commendation from a very satisfied patient who had recently received a procedure in Same Day Surgery was read. It praised all nursing staff and physicians involved.