SUMMARY MINUTES
CHAIRMAN’S MEETING
Indian River County Hospital District
September 16, 2020
10:00 AM
TRUSTEES: Marybeth Cunningham Michael Weiss
Ann Marie McCrystal Karen Deigl
Allen Jones Tracey Zudans
EXCUSED: Barbara Bodnar
STAFF: Ann Marie Suriano Jennifer Frederick
Kate Voss Jennifer Peshke, Esq.
Convene Meeting – Marybeth Cunningham, Chairwoman
Mrs. Cunningham convened the Chairman’s meeting of the IRCHD Board of Trustees at 10:00 AM by welcoming those participating via Zoom. She stated that Governor DeSantis’ Executive Order 20-69 allows the District to meet virtually without a physical quorum. However, this order is set to expire at the end of the month, so unless it is extended, the District will need to have meetings with a physical quorum of four trustees starting in October.
Education- Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative/Learning Alliance relating to health presentation- Dr. Nivea Torres
Dr. Torres provided a presentation concerning the Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative and Learning Alliance. She discussed brain development in children ages 0-2, at which time the brain is most flexible and adaptable to learning. She further reviewed the building blocks to kindergarten readiness which include social/emotional health, physical health and wellbeing, along with cognitive and communication skills. The Collaborative also provides two types of screening for children to accurately identity children at risk for developmental or social emotional delays. She reviewed further data on these screening for children in Indian River County. Right now, only 12% of children in the county have been screened and she explained that they are working collaboratively with other agencies to increase this number. The trustees thanked her for the presentation and information, and offered assistance moving forward with collaborative efforts.
VNA Letter of Intent Review- Patricia Knipper, Director, Strategic Alliances/Special Projects VNA
Mrs. Knipper thanked the District for their support of this project and provide a brief review of the VNA’s intentions moving forward. She explained that the VNA has hired a new Executive Director for the foundation who will spear head this capital campaign, which is set to begin early 2021. They hope to raise the funds in 12-24 months. There was further discussion surrounding the VNA’s fundraising efforts. Ms. Deigl voiced her concerns with the District allowing one entity the ability to take over publicly owned land. She feels that is a very sought-after piece of property. Additionally, they have obligations to Cleveland Clinic, as it is part of the lease agreement with the District. She feels this could cause issues further down the road with ownership. There was further group discussion surrounding the lease term and ownership terms of the new building. Mrs. Zudans would like to see the VNA purchase the property as part of their development plan, to avoid any issues of ownership in the future. Mrs. Cunningham stated that in her discussion with Cleveland Clinic, they were only comfortable in supporting the VNA plans, if the District remained as owner of the property. There was further group discussion and Mrs. Cunningham asked for approval of the VNA’s Letter of Intent. The Trustees agreed unanimously.
COVID-19 Special Funding Request- Action Required
Mrs. Suriano stated that the District received two COVID-19 PPE related funding requests this month. The first is from Childcare Resources in the amount of $4,787.32 for direct reimbursement of PPE and cleaning products. Mrs. McCrystal made a motion to approve which was seconded by Ms. Deigl. Motion carried 4-1, with Mrs. Zudans in opposition and Mr. Jones abstaining due to the fact he was not able to review the full request.
The next request came from the Early Learning Coalition of Indian River, Martin and Okeechobee counties in the amount of $871 for clear PPE masks for teachers. Ms. Chase, the Executive Director at the coalition, explained that the clear masks would provide a meaningful tool to help assist teachers in early literacy skill building for their students. The clear mask would also assist with letter/sounds recognition and word formation, as children pay close attention to mouths when developing literacy skills. This mask also allows the children to see the teachers entire face and facial expression which supports the connection between teacher and child. Mrs. McCrystal made a motion to approve which was seconded by Ms. Deigl. Motion carried 5-1, with Mrs. Zudans in opposition.
Gifford Health Center Advisory Committee Update- Tracey Zudans, Trustee
Mrs. Zudans stated that the group met yesterday for their monthly meeting and will send out the meeting minutes once they are completed. The GHC is showing an increase in volumes which means that the Gifford community is starting to feel more comfortable about participating in health care. TCCH is still working to reduce no show rates, but are accepting walk in appointments as well. She further explained that We Care will have their second nurse returning to its office from the Health Department and are seeing more patients in person. They are also working to prepare a report with data that the Trustees have requested over the last few months. TCCH and Health Start are continuing to work collaboratively to come up with the best format to serve patients at of the GHC. Therefore, Healthy Start is going to be giving up its space to TCCH, so that they may begin to develop a pharmacy in that area. Healthy start will take a smaller space within the clinic and still be available to the community. Additionally, August marked the 1-year anniversary of the transition to TCCH operating the center. All organizations are doing well and continue to build trust in the community which is an excellent accomplishment in such a short period of time. Lastly, Mrs. Zudans indicated that the committee has decided to hold its meetings quarterly and the next meeting will take place in January, 2021. Further, Jonnie Mae Perry has agreed to act as the main community liaison for the committee moving forward.
Other Business-
Mrs. Cunningham stated that as of Monday CCIRH has started their “EPIC” ambulatory data system throughout the hospital. They have scheduled about 50% of their appointments with the system and it has been operating correctly. Additionally, there are only six patients being hospitalized with COVID-19. Lastly, she explained that CCIRH is currently conducting physician recruitment, and the process has been going well.
Mrs. Suriano stated that the District will be relocating to its new office on October 1 & 2 and will have limited access to working capabilities during that time. Everything is expected to be up and running on October 5th.
Mrs. Cunningham asked for additional public comment and there was none. Mr. Jones made the motion to adjourn which was seconded by Dr. Weiss. The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 AM.
