Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District: Hospital Clinical Services.

Clinical Services

1. The second x-ray room project in the Emergency Department should be completed this week.

2. I am meeting with the CT scanner sales representative this week to outline a plan for moving the CT scanner into an upgraded trailer. Our plan to keep it in a trailer and to not incur the additional expense of moving it into a modular building on a foundation.

3. The first Tehachapi High School – Tehachapi Hospital Certified Nurse Aide (C.N.A.) class graduated on December 20. All 15 students successfully completed the class with a passing grade of B or better, and all 15 successfully passed the State certification examination in January. And now, 5 of the students have been hired as employees. Congratulations once again to Suzanne Chesebrough on an outstanding job. Unfortunately, unless funding comes through, the winter-spring semester will be the last C.N.A. class. Due to State budget cuts, the R.O.P. program is cutting funding for this class. We, at the Tehachapi Hospital, will examine the possibility of grant funding to see if we can continue this important class.

Rural Health Clinics
During the month of January, Dr. Baqi was on vacation. We brought in Dr. Dan Oblitas to work as a locum tenens physician to cover for Dr. Baqi’s vacation. Dr. Oblitas did a great job and clinic volumes continued to climb during the month of January.

Grants
1. We were notified earlier this month that we have been pre-approved for a $15,900 grant and a $90,000 loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for our proposal to acquire portable classrooms from the School District and to move them to the site currently occupied by the “spider” house. The estimated costs on this project currently exceed this $106,000 grant and loan. We are making attempts at this time to bring the costs of this project down so that we can begin and complete this project.

Holiday Activities
1. At the TVHD Holiday party held on January 24, the 2002 “Apple of Excellence” Award winners were announced. This years winners were:

Shehla Baqi, M.D. – Physician of Year

Charles Clayton – Manager of Year

Teri Steinberg – Nurse of Year

Lisa Montgomery – Clinical Employee

Connie Garcia – Ancillary Employee

Bob Fox – Employee Volunteer of Year

Marge Wyatt – Volunteer of Year

And the Customer Service Excellence Award went to Marisol Corpus! In addition to her award, Marisol received a check for $100.00!

Employee Health Insurance Plan
Employees participating in the new Health Net employee health insurance plan for TVHD were informed in January that this year there are more choices for providers under the plan. The new Point of Service (POS) plan allows our employees to choose from among HMO, PPO and Out of Network providers. Of course, the lowest “out of pocket” costs will be for HMO providers. The highest “out of pocket” costs will be for “out of network” providers. With PPO providers being in the middle. For the first time, this means that TVHD employees (utilizing our plan) may choose to see Dr. Baqi or Shirley Heathman in our rural health clinics. They are considered PPO providers under the plan.