CLYDE — The interim CEO of Haywood Regional Medical Center last Thursday announced new measures aimed at getting federal funding restored to the hospital soon.

Al Beyers said the hospital would be ready within days to submit paperwork to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services outlining the steps the hospital has taken to remedy problems that led to its funding being cut.

The federal government cut funding to the hospital on Feb. 24 after an inspection found potentitally dangerous problems with the ways the hospital staff administered medicaitons. Since that time, two private insurers also have withdrawn, throwing the hospital into a financial crisis.

Since the funding loss, the 170-bed hospital has been treating only about 11 patients per day.

Once the hospital submits its proposal to the CMMS, federal inspectors could show up unnanounced within seven to 10 days. However, it is unclear how soon after a successful inspection the hospital would be able to get its funding restored.
Nurses last Thursday reviewed procedures in the second of two special training sessions.

Hospital officials said that a newly created steering committee will oversee performance at the center and come up with day-to-day solutions to problems.

The committee includes doctors, top and midlevel managers, one professional performance-improvement expert and other employees.

It will answer to an oversight committee made up of three hospital board members and three members of the medical staff.
Improved systems of information sharing also are part of the plan.

Previously, information had been carefully guarded, according to inspectors.

Under the new plan, the hospital staff will examine data about errors and compare it with records from other national and regional medical centers.

Martin Godwin from McCauley Associates, a Charlotte-based executive-recruiting firm, who gave a presentation to the hospital board Thursday night, said that good communication skills will be one of the most important features of a new CEO.

The hospital also revealed new plans for addressing grievances. Kim Kwiatkowski, the hospital’s director of staff development, will now be responsible for addressing complaints from patients.

She will be responsible for notifying in writing patients who have filed a complaint that an investigation has been launched within seven days. She will also oversee the investigation and be responsible for informing the patients about the result of the investigation.

Administration of medicines, a major focus of the problems cited by investigators, will now be overseen by a nursing supervisor.

Though that measure will not continue after funding is returned, nurses said the administration of medications has been greatly improved since the hospital switched to a computerized system of dispensation, rather than the previous system which relied on handwritten notes.