Northfield Hospital and Clinics Board Meeting Observer Report from February 27, 2025
l. Executive Summary
ll. Call to Order
lll.Regular and Consent Agenda
lV. Reports
V. Presentations/Discussion/Action Items
- NH Foundation Update (Julie Nikolai Sullivan, Director of Marketing)
Annual Report
It is a three year process getting this Foundation up and running. This is the second year. This is a fundraising group raising money for events, services, and needed items for the hospital. Several events were held in the past year:
April 2024– An event for past hospital board members introducing the Foundation. 52 past board members attended.
August 2024– Cancer Survivor Event funded by the Foundation. This was a fundraiser as well as informative showcasing the services the hospital has for cancer survivors. This was attended by over 125 people. One survivor donated $5,000 to the Foundation.
September 2024– Past Care Giver event. 25 came.
December 2024– Tree of Remembrance event with 35 people. A place to express grief during the holidays.
Education about the Hospital Foundation was shared with the Rotary Club, KYMN, NH+C Magazine.
A website was developed.
The Foundation bought blood pressure cuffs to be given out (59 were donated), thermometers for cancer patients that did not have them, set up an emergency fund for medications and other necessities, set up carts with magazines, snacks for med./surg floor and ER. They sent an oncology nurse to 5 days of training in Washington DC.
They currently have 2 funds: Cancer Care, and General Fund. Ideally funds would not be tied to any one fund, but some people choose to donate to just one.
They are trying to spread the word that the hospital does not get tax money from the city. The hospital is city owned, but not city funded.
VI. Executive and Committee Reports
- CEO Report (Zander Abbott, President and CEO)
Several people attended the Rural Healthcare Conference in Texas this month. Tammy Hayes (COO) was a presenter. Many rural hospital issues were discussed at the conference including cybersecurity threats, obstetrics issues, oncology, primary care, virtual care and technology, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage
Many rural hospitals in Minnesota are starting to work together, sharing resources and data
Northfield Hospital staff are now working on:
*Analyzing service lines for growth– what will be done with the old Long Term Care Center space
*Meeting with large employers in town. Many of these are self insured.
*Working on the revenue cycle–right now there is a problem with health care insurance denials which are partly a result of how services are coded. We need to improve coding and documentation of what was actually done with each patient.
The hospital will be partnering for 3-6 months with Kaufman Hall which is a company that will be helping with
- Clinical Efficiency– accurate coding, documentation, and data management
- Revenue Cycle– help us to get the revenue cycle flowing well
- Outpatient CDI (clinical documentation improvement)
The hospital will be paying around $200,000 for these services, and based on reports from other hospitals that have partnered with them, the hospital should see net revenue improvements of over 3 million dollars.
Hospital providers are on board with this training which will teach them how to code effectively. This is very challenging and time consuming because the codes change all the time. Some hospitals are starting to use AI to help
The 3-6 month partnership may continue beyond this time.
There will be a retreat in April. The emphasis will be on
- Service line analysis– part of this is a discussion of Long Term Care space use
- Governance Model discussion
- Clinically Integrated Network (CIN)– opportunities to work with other rural hospitals
All staff at the hospital will be given a 2.5% raise with additional increases in some market areas that are difficult to retain. There was a 1.2 million dollar total investment in retention and recruitment.
In 2026, the state FMLA will go into effect and there will be a medical benefits review.
Policy and Advocacy– lots of uncertainty right now because of news coming out of Washington. It was emphasized that the hospital is a safe place to receive care (protects immigrants) and that there are no changes yet to the hospital’s Gender Affirming Care services.
Much concern about cuts to Medicaid. The hospital gets 7-8% of their net revenue from Medicaid mostly in Birth Services and the Emergency Department.
MHA policy position statements were shared with the board in the hopes that they would advocate for the hospital with their elected officials. Board Chair Michael Hemesath stressed that new CEO Abbott will be expected to focus his energy on Northfield and our local hospital issues since he is so new, but board members could advocate at the state and federal level.
B. Financial Report (Eric Guth, CFO)
There was high volume in all areas of NH+C in January. The net operating income was a positive 833k. The emergency department was 12% over budget and had the most patients ever in a month.
Respectfully submitted by observer Anne Larson.
