RGH board member reappointed to position

PORTALES — Roosevelt General Hospital Board of Trustees member Paul Benoit was reappointed to his position by the board Tuesday after no one signed up to be on the ballot during the general election, including Benoit.

“I was reading a newspaper article a few days after the signups and thought ‘Huh, I thought I was supposed to go sign up,’” Benoit said. “It could have been before the signups, but they had a listing. There was supposed to have been some paperwork filed and we didn’t know as a hospital.”

Several smaller elections, including the hospital board’s, were merged into the general election this year, changing dates and signup deadlines.

With no one running for the hospital board seat, the board received the authority to appoint a board member to Benoit’s position, according to Chief Executive Officer Kaye Green.

With no other candidates, Benoit was reappointed to the position during the board’s regular meeting.

The board also received updates that the planning phases to construct RGH’s new emergency department is under way, with a technical evaluation team meeting on Friday to begin evaluating construction management proposals.

The team received qualification and proposals from four firms for review.

After a Nov. 1 meeting with emergency department staff, a floor plan was finalized for the department and the formal design process began.

The current timeline for completion estimates the department will be complete and ready for use by December of 2020.

The hospital’s first emergency department physician received a New Mexico Medical License last week and a second has been cleared for board approval within the next two weeks. Three more physicians are still pending approval.

Those five physicians will routinely travel to Clovis from outside the state to cover 10-day shifts at the hospital.

Other highlights from the Tuesday evening meeting include:

• The hospital received an operating license for its Clovis clinic and is finalizing its application to be approved for Medicare and Medicaid services.

• The hospital’s 2019 audit is still pending state approval.

• RGH has a net operating income of $71,627 for October, bumped up to $207,474 with gross receipts taxes.

The meeting ended with an executive session with a discussion of attorney-client privileged information.