Fairview Regional Medical Center Authority

PROJECT PURPOSE

The purpose of this one-time funding is to provide immediate capital to Fairview Regional Medical Center to be able to address high-cost infrastructure needs identified during the COVID 19 pandemic. Rural hospitals traditionally have a higher reliance on Medicare and Medicaid which do not pay the total cost of providing healthcare services. Larger metropolitan areas can absorb those losses with a higher number of commercially insured patients. This reimbursement mismatch has resulted in most rural hospitals delaying infrastructure upgrades. Fairview Regional Medical Center (FRMC) is a hospital that was built with Hill Burton Act funds in 1960 and has had multiple additions and renovations funded by sales tax revenue over the years. These funds were always inadequate to address the dated infrastructure needs. The recent COVID crisis brought to light just how critical these infrastructure upgrades are needed as we were forced to manage ICU quality patients in our facility for long periods of time due to the lack of available ICU beds not only statewide but nationwide. The three critical infrastructure needs identified were upgrading the Medical Gas system, upgrading the HVAC system and upgrading the emergency back up power system.

EVIDENCE

There are multiple publications that validate the economic impact of rural hospitals as well as the precarious financial positions that most are in leading to delayed infrastructure improvements. A listing of just an example of these is found in ?Appendix A? attached. Engineers were contacted to provide and validate at a high level that the proposed concepts were sound and to give budget numbers for the grant request.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Major County is disproportionately older than the State with 19.1 percent over the age of 65 compared to Statewide average of 14.5. 20% of the population is on Medicare an additional 21% on Medicaid and 15% uninsured resulting in an unsustainable financial situation had it not been for ?Provider Relief Funds?. Major County ranks slightly higher than statewide average for obesity at 35% compared 33% for the State of Oklahoma. Smoking is also higher than top performers. Both risk factors increased the severity of reaction to COVID 19. Many of those patients remained at FRMC receiving ICU level care due to lack of statewide and nationwide ICU beds. The abnormal number of patients on high flow oxygen taxed our oxygen system to the point of failure twice during the pandemic. The stress on staff managing the failure by augmenting oxygen with portable bottles has contributed to nursing burnout and early retirement. A system designed in 1960 never envisioned what the demand of a respiratory pandemic would create. The pandemic revealed healthcare system failure as for too many years the plan was to transfer critical patients. We must retool small community hospitals to manage critical patients locally.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

A project like this is more difficult to have a direct outcome measure than a project that addresses a single key problem. The problem is viability of rural hospitals. By allowing us to use one time money to update obsolete infrastructure systems will contribute to the viability of this rural hospital that serves just under 1,600 persons and employs 80 people with an annual payroll of over $4.1 million. The performance measure therefore will be the ability for Fairview Regional Medical Center to remain open and caring for the persons who live in northwest Oklahoma.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding