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

Focus at Haxtun Health over the past month has honed in on several areas, two specifically relating to traveling and contract labor expenses and inpatient rehab numbers. To most, inpatient rehab is commonly known as its former name, swing bed.

Often times when patients have surgery on the Front Range, such as hip or knee surgery, doctors will request that the patient go to a skilled nursing facility inpatient rehabilitation bed for rehab. A skilled nursing facility, Chief Executive Officer Dewane Pace said, is a nursing home that offers inpatient rehab where the patient may only see a doctor once a month and nurses take care of up to 10 patients at a time.

“We offer inpatient rehab here in Haxtun in the hospital where the patient will see a doctor several times during the week and nurses take care of only two to three patients,” Pace explained. “We offer physical therapy, occupational therapy and now speech therapy every day. Our physical therapy takes place twice every day for 45 minutes for a total of 90 minutes of treatment. Our goal is for patients to recover close to home in a facility that knows you, knows your family, treats you like family and provides better, safer care for you.”

Pace said several examples of care this would benefit is for patients who have had knee or hip surgery at a Front Range hospital but need inpatient rehabilitation before returning to their own home.

“If your doctor on the Front Range tells you that you need to go to a SNF for inpatient rehab, tell your doctor that you know of a place close to home that does it better,” Pace told board members in a late-October meeting of Board of Directors for Haxtun Health.

Chief of Staff Ben Stephenson also spoke of the inpatient rehab program at Haxtun Health, noting that a team consisting of staff from administration, marketing, nursing, physical therapy and providers met earlier in October to analyze the overall program.

“The purpose of these meetings is to improve our program numbers as well as patient satisfaction,” the local provider said.

Pace and Chief Nursing Officer Lea White both told board members about the efforts to reduce costs of traveling and contract nurses. According to White, Haxtun Health recently hired a full-time registered nurse and two full-time licensed practical nurses.

“Our openings have gone down from four to one since last month,” White added. “We are fully staffed on certified nurses’ aides.”

Pace told the Board that the pandemic exacerbated the nursing shortage for hospitals across the country and created opportunities for nurses to become contract or traveling nurses and sometimes more than double their salary.

“We have had to use traveling and contract nurses to fill open positions here in Haxtun, but nursing administration and human resources have been working very hard to eliminate traveling nurses from Haxtun,” said Pace. “While these nurses provide good care, the cost is unsustainable.

According to the CEO, traveling nurses have been offered the opportunity to convert to a permanent position with Haxtun Health and several have agreed to do so. Those who chose not to join the team, Pace said, are having their shifts phased out.

“We have been able to hire four new nurses, two CNAs and converted several travelers to permanent positions at a lower and more reasonable rate,” he said.

In conjunction with the need for permanent nurses, Pace gave board members information on Haxtun Health’s nurse scholarships available. He said those scholarships are full ride.

“Haxtun Health will pay 100 percent of the tuition, books and even uniforms required to complete a registered nursing degree. To qualify, an applicant needs to be accepted into a nursing program, become an employee of Haxtun Health and apply for consideration. Once accepted and approved, the student will have all their costs toward a registered nurse degree covered by Haxtun Health,” Pace explained.

He added that when the student graduates and obtains their nursing license, they are also guaranteed a full-tine position with Haxtun Health. The payback, he noted, is to work as a registered nurse with Haxtun Health an equal amount of time that the organization paid the student’s costs.

“If a student took two years to finish their degree, they would work two years at the hospital and then have no obligation or debt,” said Pace. “This program is also available for a paramedic or LPN transition program.”

For more information on the nurse scholarship program at Haxtun Health, email [email protected].

In other news:

• Dr. Jodi Fitzgerald is set to begin seeing patients in Haxtun on Nov. 7. Fitzgerald is a graduate of the University of Florida medical college in Gainesville, Fla. She is American Board of Family Medicine Certified, did per residency in Westminster and currently serves on the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians Legislative Committee. She will be in Haxtun on a regular basis, Pace said, seeing patients three days a week every other week;

• Board members approved a Hospital Discounted Care policy compliant with House Bill 21-1198;

• White said the Extended Care Unit census is 18;

• Chief Financial Officer Joleen Stroyek reported that in-patient, inpatient rehab and the ECU were all under budget for the month prior. Clinic visits for Haxtun and Fleming were both above budget with a total of 347 visits combined. Ancillary visits were also over budget.