The Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties Board of Trustees Tuesday unanimously approved the drafting of a resolution to enter into a property transfer process with Citizens Against Sexual Assault and the Family Health Center.

The resolution, which is expected to come before the board for its May meeting, will stipulate the hospital's intention to transfer the former nursing school building on Carolina Avenue to both entities with an agreement on building use.

The final draft will be approved by the hospital board prior to submission of Orangeburg and Calhoun county councils.

Offering approximately 2,300-square-feet of space, the facility lacks any heating or cooling, TRMC President Tom Dandridge said.

"It is an old building. ... I am not sure if it is salvageable," Dandridge said.

Discussion between CASA/Family Systems, the FHC and the hospital has been ongoing for nearly a year on the property cited as ideal for the establishment of the site for a forensic lab and other services.

CASA/Family Systems has frequently gone on the record stressing the need for and importance of forensic medical services in the Orangeburg area. Currently, victims of assault must travel to Charleston to receive the necessary testing.

In other matters, trustees approved a certificate-of-need resolution for the rental of a mobile Positron Emission Tomography scanner at a cost of approximately $700,000 for two days a week. The scanner will give physicians greater capabilities in detecting cancerous signs and the diagnosis of disease.

Up to the present, TRMC has had to send patients needing a PET scan to Charleston or Columbia.

It will now be "in our own back yard," said Dandridge.

"There is a substantial amount of cancer in this neighborhood," Dandridge said. "This imaging process is an effort that will allow us to view a disease as it happens. No other imaging modality does this."

Patients will be charged on a per use basis, and expectations are that up to 10 procedures will be conducted on a daily basis. Provided by Shared PET Imaging out of Canton, Ohio, the scanner will be a mobile fixture until volume necessitates a more permanent facility.

"It is the newest thing in medicine," Dr. Steve Patterson said. "Physicians have been asking for this. It is integral to our treatment and diagnosis of patients."

Money issues

There are positive signs on the horizon in terms of Medicaid funding, Dandridge told trustees.

An amendment to the state's Medicaid plan last week, Dandridge said, would allow a one-time distribution of $25 million to non-state and public hospitals. TRMC is expected to benefit from roughly $1.5 million of this cash.

In addition, Dandridge informed trustees of the latest news out of the Legislature regarding Medicaid.

Gov. Mark Sanford has agreed to a 53-cent-a-pack cigarette tax increase along with a proposed income tax cut to 5 percent from 7 percent over 15 years.

"The good news is that we are still alive (on seeing a cigarette tax), but we won't know the end of it until it comes out of the conference committee," Dandridge said.

Medicaid currently faces a $212 million budget shortfall. The cigarette tax is expected to generate $171 million for the program.

Looking at hospital finances for March, Chief Financial Officer Paul Sheler reported that emergency room, same day surgery and patient-days are above budget while discharges continue to hover below budget. Sheler said these issues continue to be under the watchful eye of hospital management.

On the balance sheet, TRMC's cash and investments for the month stand at $12.6 million (down $1.7 million from 2002), and its designated investments were $48.1 million, down $3.6 million from a year ago.

In March, the hospital's gross operating revenue was $28.4 million with total deductions at $19.3 million. This brought the month's total net operating revenue to $9.1 million.

Total direct expenses were $8.1 million, and total indirect expenses were $2.1 million. Net operating income thus registered at $1.2 million in the red, significantly below the budgeted amount.

With interest income and disproportionate share Medicaid money, the hospital managed to come out $496,627 in the black.

Sheler also reported that through the hospital's tax offset and Government Enterprise Accounts Receivable collections programs, it has collected approximately $1.322 million.

When bills go unpaid and traditional collection agency efforts fail, GEAR is a last-resort program, which can garnish up to 25 percent of a person's wages until the debt is paid.

In other business:

-- Trustees were reminded about a South Carolina Hospital Association seminar to be held May 14 at the Embassy Suites in Columbia.

-- Trustees passed a resolution commending the hospital and medical staff for securing high marks in the recent Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

TRMC posted an overall score of 96 out of 100 and was in the top 16 percent of the medical centers surveyed by the Joint Commission.

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551.

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