The Washington County Hospital Board of Directors met Tuesday night and they went through some HIPAA education on privacy and security says Chief Executive Officer Nancy Newby. This included going over the risk analysis and contingency planning, such as what to do if the power goes out, if there’s a flood or the servers go out for some reason, how they protect a patient’s rights and privacy. Lt. Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti visited the hospital on November 10th and toured the building. She was looking at their issues of accessibility in the rural setting. She also met with various groups within the hospital. Newby reported that the Lt. Governor commented on the excellent use of space in the hospital and on how clean it was. The hospital administration commented to her on the financial situation with not getting any payments from the state. The Board went over the employee health plan and tweaked it by staying with Blue Cross Blue Shield. If the employee uses the hospital services instead of going elsewhere, the deductible and out of pocket expenses are covered. If they go elsewhere for services, then they pay those expenses. The dental and vision insurance is at a lower cost, but the employee still pays 100 percent of the premiums. This was approved of by the Board. There was some discussion about the employee survey from the committee. They approved of the process and a new tool to take out things that may identify who is taking the survey. Also, the survey will be done in April and then again every 18 months to 2 years. The Board approved of all of this, as well as dissolving the committee and giving the employee survey process back to the administration. The Joint Commission made a visit to examine the lab in October and Washington County Hospital received their letter of accreditation from the commission. The Board approved of some staff credentials and privileges, including moving Dr. Ginger Fewell from Associate to Active Staff. The December meeting will be on Tuesday, December 29th.