Hospital district board votes to appraise assets for buyout deal

By Editor | August 25, 2021

The Fayette County Hospital District Board will officially seek an appraisal of all assets as part of its investigation as to whether to sell the hospital to Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital in Coles County, after that entity made an offer to buy the Vandalia facility a few months ago.

If purchased, it would be the first hospital other than the main hospital which Sarah Bush Lincoln would run. SBL is the current operator of Fayette County Hospital.

After meeting for just more than a half hour in executive session, Board Member David Wasmuth made the motion, seconded by Board Member and Doctor, Michael Darmadi, to sign a contract to appraise hospital grounds and assets. It was mentioned later in the meeting that it would be unknown when the appraisal would be completed.

Social Security Levy

Attorney Bill Bradley explained to the board that in the 2019-2020 levy, there was an error in calculating the amount of taxes requested for social security, and the levy was reduced by too much. As a result, the district received little more than $32,000 less than what it should have. To make up for, he said, last year, the district recovered nearly $23,000 of those funds.

Bradley told the board that is was still down about $8,000 from where it should be with those funds, and explained that members could act in one of three ways – either raising the general levy, raising the general levy and reduce the social security levies, so that taxes would remain the same, or to raise the general levy and lower the social security levy, and basically absorb the $8,000 difference in the funds.

The board instructed Bradley to choose the second option, keeping the levy the same amount as last year.

Other business

In other business the board heard

• in the Central Sterile unit, the air handling needs to be repaired. For a new unit and ductwork, the cost would be $250,000. Planning Committee Chairman Jim Lay reported another plan could be made, with approval by the state, at a significantly lower cost;

• that the hot water situation with the hospital and long term care has vastly improved. Ricky Gottman reported that no complaints had been received during the prior week and one more valve needed to be replaced;

• CEO Greg Starnes reported that employees looked at a nurse call system and he is waiting on prices

• heard that the contract has been signed and the equipment ordered for the long term care chiller;

• materials are on order for sealing the employee parking lot;

• the fire pump control panel should be arriving any day;

• SBL has not mandated COVID shots, but have highly recommended their Coles County staff receive them. If they do not get the vaccinations, employees must wear an N95 mask and fill out a form explaining why they refuse to get the shot;

• that Starnes has issued some precautions at the hospital, due to the rise in COVID-19 cases in areas surrounding Fayette County.

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