The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Haxtun Health has hired a new Physician Assistant who is slated to begin seeing patients full time this fall. Chief Executive Officer Dewane Pace announced the hiring of Morgen Budde, PA, in a Monday evening, June 26 meeting in the upstairs meeting room of the Extended Care Unit.

At the start of the meeting, the Haxtun Health Board of Directors recognized Pastor Jeri Soens for her years of service to the Board. Soens resigned from her position on the Board this spring. Since then, others have joined or been appointed to the Board filling all vacancies.

The Haxtun Health Board of Directors currently includes Chairman Kent Bamford, Vice Chair Rebecca Ensminger, Secretary/Treasurer Rod Salvador and members Braden Ham and Darrell Smith.

During his report to the Board, Pace announced the addition of Budde to the team at Haxtun Health. He said Budde grew up in a small town in Kansas and plans to move to Haxtun in July and start seeing patients in September.

“It is my hope that I am able to be a part of a medical facility and community like the one I was fortunate enough to grow up in,” Budde said. “It is my dream to provide primary care to a small community of people and do my best to have an impact on their health. Haxtun Health is exactly what I am looking for in a medical facility.”

A physician assistant is able to examine, diagnose and treat patients under the supervision of a physician.

Along with announcing the addition of Budde, Pace gave a detailed report of recruiting efforts at Haxtun Health. He said the organization launched several initiatives at the beginning of the year to help make Haxtun Health a preferred place of employment including paying 100 percent of employee’s insurance costs, participation of FAMLI that provides paid leave, targeted pay increases and retirement match.

“The results are a significant improvement in the number of open or vacant positions,” he said. He also provided the following statistics:

• Certified nursing assistant positions: 42 percent vacancy rate in January, as of today 100 percent fully staffed;

• Medical assistant: 60 percent vacancy rate in January, as of today 100 percent fully staffed;

• Registered nurse: 44 percent vacancy rate in January, as of today 83 percent staffed or a vacancy rate of 17 percent.

“There are still nation-wide shortages for health care positions as of 100,000 nurses have exited the workforce in the past two years due to stress, burnout and retirement,” Pace said. “Healthcare continues to be a great profession that provides a meaningful purpose for those who choose it and demand remains high for workers.”

Right now Haxtun Health has openings for four full-time RNs including three for night shift and one for day shift.

Pace also updated on board members regarding Senate Bill 23-298, which recently passed in Colorado. The bill, he said, is a Conditions of Participation Act that allows two specific types of rural public health care entities to enter into cooperative agreements to improve the efficiency and availability to health care services in rural areas of the State. Haxtun Health qualifies as one of those hospitals.

“Examples of shared functions that would be allowed include joint supply purchases, staff sharing, shared services for administrative activities, shared care protocols, etc.” said Pace. “The bill deems that rural health care access and efficiency are in the public interest and provides state protection form anti-competitive conduct arising from cooperative agreements between and among rural public hospitals and health service districts.”

Pace said the bill does not grant these protections to privately-owned rural hospitals or public hospitals organized under other parts of the law for example Denver Health or the University of Colorado Hospital.

“This is a huge win for Haxtun Health and other Eastern Plains hospitals as it will allow collaborative negotiations to happen where many small hospitals can negotiate like a large system hospital and drive down costs and improve care.”

The Eastern Plains Healthcare Consortium, of which Haxtun Health is a member of, has been working on this legislation for the past three years.

In her marketing report to the Board, Chief Community Relations Officer Julia Biesemeier said the annual health fair held at the beginning of June was a success. She said 81 patients attended the health fair and a total of 2,080 lab tests were performed.

“Our team stepped up in a big way and ran an extremely efficient event,” Biesemeier said.