TONASKET – In what may be a record-setting short meeting, the North Valley Hospital Board met on Thursday, Jan. 28 to discuss hospital district business.

“As far as warrants, we’re struggling right now because Medicare has a big hold on reimbursements so we’re a little short on our payment this week,” Chief Financial Officer Bomi Bharucha said.

In his written report to the board, Support Services Director John Boyd detailed the ongoing construction project at the hospital.

“On the main construction project, things are going well,” Boyd wrote. “We are still working on door security issues and we are waiting for a visit from both the security company and the door company to fix and resolve these problems, we are having them coordinate the visit so they are here together. We are still working on our sign across the street. The sprinkler work has been finished and we have received the as builds from them and Christian Johnson has inspected the system and now they have to come back out and fix what is not on the plans. The floor in the elevator penthouse is done and has been inspected. We still have fire taping to do in this space and then it will be inspected. Johnson did give us an extension on our certificate of occupancy.”

Boyd also wrote about the planned move of the hospital clinic to the second floor.

“We are in the process of planning for the move of the clinic to the second floor of the existing hospital building which involves the clinic staff and surgery staff and acute care,” he wrote. “We’re hoping to begin a minor remodel by our maintenance staff within the next few weeks. We have removed everything out of the second floor Nurses Station and will be getting quotes for the cabinets and desks to match our new building from the shop that did our new addition.”

Finally, in Registered Nurse and Chief Operations Officer Marcia Naillon wrote about the new nurses recently hired at the hospital in her written report to the board.

“We have successfully hired staff to fill all the positions for nurses in the Acute Care of the hospital,” Naillon wrote. “We have five new nurses all excited to be here and willing to cross-train to all areas. One of the nurses has OB experience and has approximately five years with some high-risk experience. She will bring added expertise in the OB department for us to draw from. One of the new-hire nurses has some ICU and ER experience which will also bring depth to our young night shift staff.”

The next hospital board meeting will be on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. in the hospital boardroom.