By Terry Bailey
The Mitchell County Hospital Health Systems conducted their annual Board of Directors dinner at the Beloit Country Club Monday night, April 25th. The social hour took place from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. with the dinner beginning at 7:00 p.m. The annual meeting took place following the dinner.
Brigit Gasper, Chairman of the Board, introduced the members of the Hospital Board: Chris Mondero, Brent Cunningham, Jim Johnson, Brad Eilert, Jerica King, and Christine Marozas.
Gasper introduced Stephanie Simmons, Director of the Mitchell County Regional Medical Foundation. Simmons said the Foundation could not exist without the community patrons who invested their time, resources and leadership into making health a priority. She said the Foundation administered over 135 scholarships and invested over $71,750 in funds to area students pursuing degrees in healthcare.
Christine Budke, director of the Solomon Valley Hospice, said 2021 was a challenging and unique year for the Hospice. Covid-19 continued to present new challenges as they worked to care for terminally ill patients in a safe environment. The Hospice provided care to 74 patients in their 40-mile radius service area.
Vickie Mears said the Economy Shop provided a vital service to the community and continued to raise money even with the Covid-19 restrictions. She said the biggest challenge to the program was securing volunteers to help operate the Economy Shop. Mears said that in spite of the Covid-19 restrictions with the shop only open two days a week from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. they still raised $72,000. Mears also said one of their biggest problems they have is the overflow of donated clothes. They have to work hard to pass them on to appropriate places.
Jeremy Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Retaining and maintaining an appropriate workforce has been the greatest challenge of the past year. Our inability to fill positions has forced us to limit resident admissions in the Resident Care Center, limit patient beds in the hospital, and force the closure of our Special Care Unit. In an effort to address these workforce issues we have made significant investments to increase employee wages and bonuses for staff."
"We need to build on our strengths and to work on our weaknesses. We continue to move toward the new normal, whatever that is. We cannot take things for granted. That is a vital point. We cannot give folks a reason to go elsewhere for their healthcare needs."