Flint Hills Community Health Center has updated its masking policy for visitors and staff alike.
During the FHCHC Board of Directors monthly meeting Tuesday, Risk Manager Neil Dean presented an updated version of the health center’s mask policy to the board for approval. The updates will require all patients and visitors, fully vaccinated or not, to wear a mask or face covering of some kind to the health center until further notice.
Dean says the changes are in relation to the ever-changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the increase in variant cases, to prevent any potential outbreaks within the health center.
In addition to the requirements for visitors, all staff will be required to wear masks or face coverings in public settings. Mask use will not be required in offices or anywhere there is no mass gathering of individuals.
The board’s decision came shortly before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its new recommendations that all individuals, vaccinated or not, living in areas with high or substantial transmission wear masks while indoors.
In other business, CEO Renee Hively updated the status of American Rescue Plan grants which the health center recently applied for and are still awaiting word on. This includes a C8E grant that could give the health center $604,000 for a construction project to relocate and expand the center’s dental clinic.
Hively says this will be a phased project with phase one being the relocation of the clinic.
Hively says they are currently awaiting approval of a spending plan for the project. Once the health center receives a notice of award it will begin to assemble bid documents and put the project out to bid.
Hively also provided an update on a second grant — H8F — that could bring roughly $2.2 million to the center, however, only less than $500,000 would be available for construction-related projects. The health center plans to use those funds for a renovation project to consolidate the center’s medical department which is currently split between the opposite ends of the building.
Hively says both projects will likely run concurrently and with work possibly beginning in the fall or winter.
Separately, the monthly financial report showed a $79,000 net gain for the month of June which brings the center’s year-to-date net gain to $344,000.
The FHCHC Board will reconvene for its monthly meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 24 at noon inside the Havenhill Conference Room.
