CEO gets raise

The Ector County Hospital District board of directors unanimously approved a 2-percent pay increase for Medical Center Hospital Chief Executive Officer Bill Webster at their regular meeting Tuesday evening.

The move was taken after a little more than an hour of executive session. It’s the same merit increase allowed for the rest of the MCH staff that was part of the budget process in the fall.

“It’s fair and the standard merit increase this fiscal year,” Webster said. Webster received $338,000 in salary in 2009.

Board member Mary Thompson said the 2009 fiscal year was difficult but Webster helped create new initiatives, such as the Center for Health and Wellness under construction.

“He has led us in a good direction,” she said.

In other business, MCH officials also reached an agreement with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center of the Permian Basin to digitize hospital patient records.

Directors approved the agreement in a unanimous vote.

Presenting the details of the contract to the board was Gary Barnes, chief information officer of Medical Center Hospital.

“It’s taken about two years to get to this point, a contract agreement,” Barnes said. “The plan will be to roll this out in phases.”

Dr. John C. Jennings, regional dean of the TTUHSC, was also at the meeting. The basic purpose of going digital, he said, is “to do away with paper,” eventually making patient medical records at Medical Center Hospital and TTUHSC fully  electronic.

As part of the three-year deal, TTUHSC will pay $513,505 the first year and $92,105 for years two and three. Medical Center Hospital is providing a fiber line between themselves and TTUHSC for $49,559, a cost TTUHSC will reimburse to Medical Center Hospital within the three-year timetable. Medical Center Hospital will provide the software, which includes implementation, licensing, backend servers and storage.

Earlier Tuesday, Barnes said the system alone could cost $40,000 to $80,000 per physician at both facilities. Additional costs will go towards training Medical Center Hospital and Texas Tech employees to digitize the documents.

A press conference outlining the agreement and the plans to convert medical records will be held at noon today.

The board of directors also unanimously approved a contract with the patient financial services department and Healthcare Recovery Alliance.  The contract would allow Healthcare Recovery Alliance to review all workers’ compensation payments for the last 18 months.

“We just are having this company come in and review the last 18 months,” Robert Abernethy, chief financial officer, at Medical Center Hospital, said.

The month-to-month contract, which Abernethy said, “could expire at anytime,” allows the Healthcare Recovery Alliance to then review workers’ compensation claims every 90 days.

Director of Patient Financial Services for Medical Center Hospital J.R. Edmiston said Healthcare Recovery Alliance’s work is to see that Medical Center Hospital is “properly reimbursed,” for payments for patients who are covered under worker’s compensation plans, Abernethy said.

The board of directors also:

>> Approved the reappointment of medical staff.

>> Approved the removal of provisional status for medical staff.

>> Accepted the TTUHSC’s monthly report.

>> Approved an amendment to contract for election services between elections administrator of Ector County and ECHD/MCH.

>> Acknowledged February employees of the month; Rosa Weishaar, unit clerk, Dwayne Williford, operations analyst, and Donna Fincher, nurse.