FFH board is Ebola ready; special meeting set tonight

After meeting in regular monthly session Thursday, Hospital Service District 1 board members will meet in special session tonight at 7 p.m.
The only items on the agenda are, “Discussion and action on renewal of physician employment agreements,” and, “Discussion and action on termination of physician employment agreements.”
The special session was not called until after Thursday’s meeting with the agenda delivered to news media via email at 6:47 p.m.
There was no indication in the regular meeting of why the special meeting is being called.
Attempts to contact Franklin Foundation Hospital administration this morning were unsuccessful prior to the press deadline.
On another note, hospital Chief Nursing Officer Jennifer Wise said the hospital has “done much surrounding Ebola preparedness.”
She said the policy has been revised three times upon recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We have enough equipment,” she said. “We have everything we need. We have found, however, there were a few new items we thought we’d like to purchase.” She added, though that those items are on backorder.
“Fortunately, within the past two years some of our emergency preparedness grant money has gone to buying personal protective equipment of we have tons of it,” she said.
Wise also said nurse educator Cathy Siracusa has been instructing emergency room and ICU employees on the method to put on and take off the protection gear.
She added that the hospital continues to work with federal, state and especially the parish Homeland Security office on policy.
In other discussions, Chief Financial Officer Ron Bailey reported that the hospital ended the month of September, the last month of the fiscal year, with a $393,538 profit resulting in a $552,119 surplus on the year.