CMMC Accredited for Two-Year Term

              TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 1972
Directors Told Monday-—
CMMC Accredited
For Two-Year Term
The Confederate Memorial
Medical Center's board of
directors met Monday night
with topics of discussion in-cluding
an announcement the
hospital has received a two-year
accreditation from the
Accreditation o f Hospitals'
Joint Commission and the
reading of the annual finan-cial
report.
In the announcement of the
two-year status1, recommenda-tions
for improvement of the
quality of patient care were
listed.
" T h e s e improvements
s h o u l d be put into effect
before the next visit of a
representative of the commis-sion,"
Dr. John D. Porterfjeld,
director of the commission,
stated in a letter to Confeder-ate's
administrator, Dr. Ed-gar
Galloway.
THE RECOMMENDA-TIONS
included:
—Pre-anesthesia evaluation
should be performed by a
physician;
—A w r i t t e n preventive
maintenance program be de-veloped
for the entire hospi-tal;
Ranges in the kitchen if
The Pines Sanatorium should
be provided with an automatic
fire extinguishing system;
—The Pines should be pro-vided
with an e m e r g e n c y
power source;
—T h e pharmacy-therapeu-tics
committee, in cooperation
with the pharmacist and rep-resentatives
of other disci-plines,
should develop policy
in regard to drug distribution
and accountability and admin-istration
of drugs throughout
the hospital;
—THE P H A R M A C I S T
should review the original or
a direct copy of the physi-cian's
order for patient medi-cation
before the initial dose
is dispensed.
Last year the hospital was
placed on one-year accredita-tion
status, with about 20
deficiencies being listed at
that time — the main com-plaint
being that there was a
lack of registered nurse cover-age
at The Pines.
Concerning t h e financial
statement, it was reported the
hospital will end this fiscal
year with a deficit of about
$275,000.
However, the directors were
told that Medicare and Medi-caid
collections have amount-ed
to $526,000 more than the
amount budgeted for the cur-rent
year. That amount, if
allowed by the Division of
Administration to be entered
into the 1972-73 budget, would
take care of the deficit, it was
reported.
THE FINANCIAL r e p o r t
also showed there were 129,717
inpatient days at the hospital
through May, an increase of
6,407 inpatient days over last
year's total; the per diem cost
at the hospital averaged $58.92
through May 31, an increase
of $3.01 or 5.3 per cent over
the same period last year, and
there were 20,477 admissions
d u r i n g the past year as
compared to 19,796 during the
same time the year before.
The board also reported
that, including 52 freshmen
and 15 juniors in the associate
degree program and 10 in the
diploma program, there are a
total of 77 students in the
Northwestern State Universi-ty-
CMMC School of Nursing;
—That, during the last year,
there were 90 outpatients at
The Pines, and an average of
41 inpatients;
—Voted to continue hiring
the necessary resident doctors
to work in the admitting and
emergency rooms in lieu of a
lack of rotating interns, the
cost of the practice last year
being $180,000;
—APPROVED visiting staff
appointments for Dr. Ronald
B. George, Internal Medicine
D e p t , and Dr. F. Dean
Griffen and Dr. R. M. Yeager,
both of the General Surgery
Dept.;
—Announced that A r t h u r
Thompson was named assist-ant
attorney general in charge
of collecting ineligible patient
receipts for the hospital;
—Held a discussion as to
whether doctors should get
free meals at the hospital and,
if so, which ones — those who
volunteer their time or those
who are paid e i t h e r by