Newman Regional Health’s Board of Trustees approved a measure that could help pyschiatric patients in the hospital’s emergency room during its meeting Wednesday.
Chief Executive Officer Bob Wright says the board approved a plan to use its remote physician vendor to gain access to psychiatric consultations and thus help with medications before patients get services at CrossWinds Counseling and Wellness or other locations across Kansas.
The goal is to start that option in June.
Wright says there has been a surge in psychiatric patients since 2017 — to the point where psychiatric transfers have quadrupled. As an example, seven patients were admitted to the ER a total of 120 times last year.
In the monthly financial report, Wright says the hospital had over $1 million in net income for March. Most of that was federal grant money that could be applied to income. Wright says the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are now solidifying the financial allocation rules on COVID-19 relief to hospitals over the last 13 months, including hospital ability to claim losses and the specific use of certain dollars for COVID-related purposes.
