Alright, it's uh one after two uh and uh our uh Reverend uh Diane Shircliffe is with us, and would you open us in uh in a word of prayer?

So this morning I'm gonna tell you a little bit of a story.

Um I was walking through the emergency department the other day when I ran across Francine and she was absolutely thriving.

So when I asked how it was that she could be doing so well in this environment, a physician offered that she was cared for by those who love her.

She takes breaks regularly to soak up sunshine and be in a less stressful environment.

Now I had to know more.

So I asked about her background.

Francine, as she is known now, was found in pretty bad shape.

She came in with a patient looking dehydrated and sad.

The staff took it upon themselves to care for her, give her water, food, and some kind words.

They did not need to do this.

She was not a patient, she was not a family member, but she came through our doors, and at that point she became part of the community.

And when you're part of the community, sometimes you care for those in need, and sometimes you are the one in need.

No one asked why she was the way she was.

They simply treated her kindly.

But we are also a community that cares for the city and is there for the neighbors who need help in the moment, whether that requires getting to them in an emergency or being here to receive them, being a presence at school, being a resource in the neighborhood.

This community helps where we are needed, doing the things that are required, and then some.

We are not perfect, but we do our best to build others up to help them learn to help themselves, to be a listening ear, the one with a glass of water, and some dirt.

A beautiful flowering, vining plant with pink blooms.

Don't ask me what kind I can kill plastic, so just don't even go there.

Francine came into the emergency department writing in a patient's pants pocket.

She was unexpected, and someone saw her need and her potential.

And they acted in her best interest.

So let us take a moment to pause and reflect on Francine.

But she'll be back, and she will remain a steady reminder that difficulty does not mean defeat, that the unexpected brings its own potential, and that thriving takes community.

Today, may your conversations carry the spirit of Francine forward into all the facets of HHC business, into the communities of Indianapolis, and into the lives of our neighbors.

Thank you, Reverend Chair.

With that, I will uh I do the uh uh call our uh took to order and uh the roll call vote uh vice chairperson uh drummer present uh trustee Du Set Trustee Dr.

Fish present trustee Hannafee here Trustee Horn Uh do we have Trustee O'Brien?

No, okay, he's not with us today.

Thank you.

Um and uh I'm I'm uh trustee Lazard that you're the board.

Um so with that uh the consent agenda consists of our board minutes from September 16, 2025, the uh treasurer and CFO report uh for September 2025 cash disbursements, the medical staff appointments, reappointments, and changes to privileges, um a number of staff policies, uh 700-20, 700-104, 700-123, 700-134, and 700-156, as well as our uh pediatrics uh clinical privilege form.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Mr.

Chair, I move that we um approve the consent agenda.

It's been motioned by trustee uh vice chairperson drummer.

Is there a sec is there uh all in favor?

I'll do a roll call vote.

I guess it needs a second.

Sorry, seconded by trustee horn, sorry.

Um please say yes to vote positively or no to vote negatively.

Uh uh Vice Chairperson Drummer.

Yes, Trustee Dusett, yes, trustee Dr.

Fish, yes, trustee Hannafee, yes, trustee Horn, yes, Trustee Lazard votes yes.

Uh motion carries uh uh 601.

All right, that takes us to uh next item on our agenda are our public bids, and I'd like to introduce uh uh Fredo and is it Pagan?

Yes, sir.

And uh what we're going to do is uh uh once uh uh we uh uh there'll be a motion to authorize for staff to enter into a contract, there'll be a second, and then I'll ask Mr.

Pagan to kind of give us a summary of of the uh of the public bids uh before we uh go into questions and uh ask into a vote.

Um so is there a motion to authorize staff to enter into these contracts?

Is there a second?

Second it's been moved by uh Vice Chairperson Drummer seconded by Trustee Hanafi.

And with that, I'll uh allow Mr.

Pagan to uh to tell us about these three uh public bids that that we have before us.

Okay.

Thank you, and good afternoon, Chairman Lazard and Board of Trustees.

Um I would like to take this time to communicate uh the three proposals that we had and the public bids that were put in place uh for these selections.

Uh the first is our public bid for the Brazil Pavilion Curtain Wall Replacement Project.

Uh Eskenazi Health has concluded a bidding process for the purpose of engaging a prime contractor to replace the exterior envelope of the base pavilion located at 720 Eskenazi Avenue.

Uh it's selective demolition of the existing curtain wall.

Within our bidding process, we were pursuant to the Indiana Code 36-1-12 to advertise the bid and the Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis Star, and other media outlets.

Um we had four bidders that included F.A.

Wilhelm Construction, Time Key Enterprise, ABO Construction, and Davis Associates.

The evaluation analysis bids were opened publicly on August 19, 2025, and reviewed by EH departments, including supply chain and facility management.

The bids were reviewed for completeness and responsiveness, responsiveness and EH conducted clarification interviews to confirm submission numbers from the top two vendors.

Top T caneke enterprise and FA Wilhelm.

Supplier diversity goals for the projects were listed.

15% MBE, 8% WBE, 3% VBE, and 1% DOBE.

Within the cost proposal, uh we made sure we evaluated the time of completion, their contribution to our goals within the MBA, WBE, VBE, and DOB space if they were responsible and responsive.

With that said, we are requesting your approval to respectfully uh select FA Wilham Construction for the contract that recommended amount of 360,000 dollars.

So uh we'll vote on the uh the proposals in in individually.

Um are there any questions with regard to the uh the the SIL pavilion uh curtain wall replacement project hearing none?

Trustee Du Set, yes, trustee Dr.

Fish.

Yes, trustee Hannafi, yes.

Trustee Horn, yes.

Uh again, Trustee O'Brien is not with us, so uh Trustee Lazard votes yes.

Uh the uh the SIL uh pavilion uh project uh passes.

I'll let you proceed with the uh hospital flooring replacement project.

Yes, sir.

Uh Eskenazi Health has concluded in a bidding process for the purpose of engaging a prime contractor to replace flooring at the Sydney Sydney and Louise Eskenazi Hospital located at 720 Eskenazi A.

This is for the replacement of floors through the first floor and the eighth floor of the hospital.

Uh bidding process pursuant to Indiana Code 31-1-12.

Eskenazi advertised the bid in the Indy App, Indianapolis Recorder, the Indianapolis Star, and additionally via the following media in the Indianapolis Business Journal, Mid States Minority Supplier Development Council, and the repro graphics e-plan room.

SEAL bids were replaced from four bidders, including F FA, Wilhelm Construction, Diversified Pro, Blakeleys, and Assurance Restoration.

Bids were opened publicly on August 19, 2025 and reviewed by EH departments, including both supply chain and facility management and planning.

The bids were reviewed for completeness and responsiveness, and EH conducted clarification interviews to confirm submission numbers from the top two bidders, FA Wilhelm Construction and Diversified Pro LLC.

Supplier diversity goals for the project were listed at 15% MBE, 8% WBE, 3% VBE, and 1% DOBE.

Based on our cost proposals and orders of requests, we reviewed the timely and completion of the package, our XBE requirements under MBE, WBE, VBE, and DOBE.

And we looked at the overall cost of the project.

We are respectfully asking HHC board approval to go into contract with diversified pro LLC for a total cost of the award of $600, $609,270.

Thank you.

Are there any questions from the board regarding the hospital flooring replacement project?

Hearing none, uh do a roll call vote, uh Vice Chair Person Drummer.

Yes.

Trustee Du Sett.

Yes, Trustee Dr.

Fish.

Yes.

Trustee Hanafi.

Yes.

Trustee Horn.

Yes.

Trustee Lazard votes yes again.

601.

Uh and that leave brings us to the uh third uh the the uh renovation of the uh Starbucks uh location in the fifth third building.

Thank you, sir.

I promise this is the last one.

We won't have three in the future.

Uh Eskenazi Health has concluded a bidding process for the purchase of engaging prime contractor to renovate the existing Starbucks located at 640 Eskenazi Avenue uh per the license agreement for EAs to operate the Starbucks location.

Eskenazi Health is contractually obligated to remodel the store in accordance with Starbucks approved brand fixtures once every 10 years.

The bidding process pursuant to Indiana Code 36-1-12 EH advertised the bid in the Indianapolis Recorder and Indianapolis Star, and additionally via the following media, Indianapolis Business Journal, Mid States Minority Supplier Development Council, and Repro Graphics e Plan Room in collaboration with Studio 3 Design.

Our evaluation and analysis bids were opened publicly on August 19, 2025, and were reviewed by reviewed by EH departments, including both supply chain and facility management and planning.

EH conducted clarification interviews to confirm submission numbers of the top three bidders, assisted integrated systems, Willham Construction, and Rose Construction.

Supplier diversity goals for this project were listed at 15% MBE, 8% WBE, 3% VBE, and 1% D O D E Based on the cost proposals and order of receipt.

We looked at the timeline list of the completion of the project, our XPD requirements under MBE, WBE, VBE, and DOBA, and we're requesting uh approval from the board uh to uh to support the selection of rose construction uh for the recommended award of 297 dollars, 297,171 dollars for the project.

And we're requesting uh approval from the board uh to uh to support the selection of rose construction uh for the recommended award of 297 dollars, 297,171 dollars for the project.

Are there any questions from the board uh Mr.

Didon?

Uh the trustee du setup I'm assuming this is up to date.

There isn't a time for completion um compared to the others.

Is there um any time or any um like what am I trying to say at the proposed time?

That was a call out in our previous meeting, and um it's it's it's actually going to meet the timeline.

I think it was 110 days, it just wasn't documented there.

So we apologize for missing that in the original submission.

Are there any further questions from the board hearing none?

Uh roll call vote, uh, Vice Chairperson Drummer.

Yes.

Trustee Du Set.

Yes.

Trustee Dr.

Fish.

Yes.

Trustee Hannafee.

Yes.

Trustee Bourne.

Yes.

Trustee Lazard votes yes.

So that again carries 601.

And uh, so uh the outcome of the vote authorizes the staff to enter into these contracts, and uh thank you for your efforts.

Thank you.

Okay, the next item on the agenda is resolution 5-20-25, the uh termination of a long-term care uh lease agreement, and uh I will uh uh turn it over to uh uh uh uh introduce Paul Babcock, our president CEO, who's gonna speak to this.

Um but before he speaks to it, I'm going to ask the board to uh uh uh to uh put a motion on the table and then we'll we'll let Mr.

Babcock present the information.

So I'll do a uh uh is there a motion.

I'll I'll move forward to pass uh to approve resolution number five 2025.

2025 termination of long-term lease agreement.

Is there a second?

Second, it's been that's been motioned by trustee Hannafee, seconded by Trustee Horn.

I'll turn it over to our president CEO uh Paul Babcock to uh present the information.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Resolution number five-2025 is a continuation of uh termination of leases with uh landlord named Rob New.

We've over the last four years um have gotten out of the business with him.

This is for the West Bend facility.

Uh, if you recall the leases with Mr.

New were all individual leases, um, and in the attempt to renegotiate with him maybe three and a half, four years.

Uh he wanted a master lease agreement, and while all of our other portfolios are master leases, and this is a historical thing.

We haven't really believed that jumping back into a new master lease at this time is the right thing.

Uh and now I will say my reports, I'm gonna make a comment that may seem a little different than that, but I do have an explanation for why.

Um so I would ask the board to uh approve this resolution.

Happy to answer any questions.

Are there any questions for uh our uh president CEO of HHC on this matter?

So I'm clear in your comments, you're gonna give a reason.

And my comments I'm gonna give a different I'm gonna make a different statement about some other leases.

Putting the cart before the horse or the horse before the cart.

Well, yeah, that's timing wasn't great, but no, I don't have any other questions.

Are there any other questions from the board?

Um so again, yes to approve the resolution, no to uh to deny the resolution uh vice chairperson drummer, yes, trustee du set, yes, trustee doctor fish, yes, trustee Hannafee, yes, trustee Horn, yes, trustee Lazard votes yes, so six zero and uh uh that uh uh passes uh so uh the motions carry.

And so I don't know if you want to lead with your comment uh uh Mr.

Babcock, but uh go right ahead.

Well, yeah, uh that messes up my order of my points, but that's fair enough.

Um so we have an opportunity um with Omega, which is our largest um real estate trust and largest long-term care um landlord.

They own 32 of our facilities.

Um they're scattered across the state of Indiana.

They are our best facilities, um, and they also without the UPL are cash flow positive.

Um, so that means that even if the UPL were to go away, these facilities would still generate revenue for the corporation.

Um so we have an opportunity uh with Omega because of the way the leases are structured.

We have four more five-year renewals with them.

We believe that there's a possibility to um go and negotiate with Omega to get a 10-year extension, and with that, we'll be able to possibly renew put some beds back into the state's coffers, they won't come back, which will then take away the ability for us to get a penalty because the way in which the system's set up, there's it's called the occupancy penalty.

And so if the facilities are below a certain occupancy, you get actually penalized and have to pay a fine.

Um and so we think if we enter into a longer term lease with Omega, they'll be willing to negotiate with us about those, and as well as develop capital.

And so the reason I say that, or invest capital in the facilities, is that um I'd like to bring a resolution next month to the board to approve for us to go and do that negotiation.

Uh, we'll bring the presentation to be able to show the numbers and justify why we think it's an important investment for the future of the organization.

So that's the the cart before the horse, but I do think they are two different um situations.

And you know, as I said, Omega is our best star facilities as well as our um quality facilities as well as just the revenue generation.

So that's the that was my second bullet point.

Um, but since I had left the resolution, I figured I'd leave with that next.

Um then next um next month we'd like to also bring the strategic plan presentation before the board, present it, and ask the board to vote to approve it, similar to what we did about two years ago.

Um you should see in board effects by the beginning of next week a dot uh the PowerPoint presentation for your review, as well as to answer any questions.

Um more than happy to do that at any time of the day.

Um, and have no questions too big or too small.

Uh, our team at Foris is here to help as well as everybody who's participated in the plan throughout the organization.

It's been a very collaborative effort, and the board's approval uh will allow us to continue to go forward to can maintain financial sustainability and to achieve it.

Um my third bullet point is to let you know that the BAS refunding was successful last week.

So we've been talking about refunding the debt service on the hospital for a while now, and the board approved it.

We had all the other board approvals and we went to pricing and were very successful.

James and the finance team were rock stars.

So I'll let him tell you all the good details, but you'll see that it was a successful endeavor.

And I think the main point that we can all take away is that uh the government shutdown shows why uh we did this because now no one's getting subsidies, um, and so we don't have to be concerned about that anymore.

Um, uh Trustee German will appreciate this if he recalls the meeting when she called me out.

Uh we will be putting out an RFP for grant management software.

Um we're asking the board to vote on it.

So I'll let you know that we listen.

Um there'll also be an RFP for uh dental practice management software solutions system, as well as an RFP for SAP Cloud uh migration and then a bid uh for Millersville Road office renovation project, and all of those will be before the board in November as well.

So we're gonna have a busy meeting in November, uh, but we're gonna be achieving a lot of good things at the end of the year, get things across the finish line.

Um and then all the construction projects are on track and on time.

Um continue to encourage folks to come out and visit if you'd like.

And then finally, just as a side note, the budget passed the city county council 2411.

The one day vote was a protest vote against all municipal corporations due to some sort of issue that occurred before we presented our budget with the city's budget.

So uh we're pretty power uh pleased about it.

The presentation went well.

Um, and I'll answer any questions and turn it back to you, Mr.

Chair.

Are there any questions for our uh CEO of Health and Hospital Corporation, Paul Babcock?

Hearing none, I'll uh turn it over to our interim CFO and assistant treasurer uh James Simpson to uh take your victory lap on the uh BABS bonds.

Thank you, Chairman Lazard.

So to build on what Paul had mentioned uh on October 15th, we did go to the market for pricing for the BABs for funding.

And so we we went to the market asking for 428 million dollars in bonds, and they were well received.

Uh HHC received a total of 1.9 billion dollars in total orders from 45 different investors.

So we had a we had a lot of options there to choose from.

The effective cost of borrowing is 3.62%.

And then the deal generated $33.1 million in cash flow savings between 2026 and 2040.

So as you remember, we didn't extend the date.

And again, this eliminates all risk associated with the Billed America bond subsidy payments.

And the notice says that this will take place on November 18th.

And the closing is also scheduled for November 18th.

So that's the update on the bot on the BABS bonds refinancing.

And then also another item to add to the November board agenda is going to be resolution 6-2025, the annual review of investment policy.

And at the November board meeting, I'll request the board consider this resolution to complete our annual review and approval of the investment policy that was passed in 2023 on resolution 5.

The 2023 investment policy is active through 2027 as long as we do our annual reviews.

The investment policy, this annual review resolution was reviewed by both internal and external legal teams to make sure we remain compliant with state laws.

Sorry.

So now our the general fund budgetary revenue and expenditure report as of uh September 30th, 2025.

There's very little movement here.

You know, we we had the big change with the the loss of HCI funding earlier in the year.

Um when we compare September to August, there's just a small change in our our decrease in fund balance.

It's it's moved from 12.1 million to 12.4 million.

So there's a slight uptick there as of the end of September.

Again, this decreases the result of loss of HCI funding, as well as IGT expenses, intergovernmental transfer expenses are exceeding budget as of the end of September.

But these are partially offset by the continued strong interest in investment income, the health department revenues, as well as all expenditures are better than budget at the end of September.

Then our projections through the end of the year through 1231 25.

Again, there's there's actually an improvement in our in our projections here.

We have the general fund fund balance decreasing by 20.8 million compared to previously reported the end of August of 23.2 million.

So this is this is just as we get further closer to the end of the year, we have another month of actual revenues, actual expenditures.

So we're plugging those in and removing out one month of projections, and so that is what's driving that um that improvement, although it is a decrease in fund balance that we're projecting.

So that would conclude the report for the C the CFO and treasury report.

But then I do have the internal audit committee meeting as well.

If there's there's no question.

So before we get to the internal audit committee meeting, are there any questions with regard to the uh the financial aspects?

I guess the one comment I would make is that while you mentioned the uh finishing the the projection for the 2025 budget year at a at a deficit of about 1.4 million.

Uh but with the loss of funds that came from the HCI termination, uh that that's that's significantly better than uh uh what what we might have been told.

Yeah, the the loss, the decrease in fund balance is 20.8 million.

Ah, yeah.

So it but when you factor in the the three missed HCI payments, you know, you're that's you know 28 and a half million.

Right.

So we are trending better, and and typically we do see coming in better than budget.

Um so hopefully this will continue to improve another three to five million before the end of the year, but we'll we'll keep an eye on that.

The other thing we'll look at is open POs to see if there's any that we can um reduce or close out by the end of the year.

Thank you.

I'll let you proceed with the uh in the report on the internal audit committee report.

Thank you.

Uh the internal audit committee met at noon today.

Both Matt Davis and Latanya Wilson, directors with Kodiak presented the internal audit quarterly update report.

This report included an update on the internal audit implementation timeline, risk assessment process and the collaboration with various teams across all the divisions of HHC and the results of the risk assessment, as well as uh Matt and Latania presented the seven proposed audits for year one for the internal audit, the Office of Internal Audit.

The committee approved of the internal audit plan proposed seven audits and then uh the next internal audit committee meeting will be scheduled for 2026.

That'll conclude my report.

Are there any questions about internal audit?

Good.

All right.

Well that uh thank you, uh James.

Uh that that will bring us to the Marion County Public Health Department to report.

And I don't know if we have anybody online or if we're we need we do steal a microphone.

Thank you.

Thank you, Karen.

Good afternoon.

Public health emergency preparedness is preparing to conduct a tabletop exercise to test our newly updated family assistance plan, and that is where the health department and city um partners are responsible for helping residents in the county find their loved ones doing any type of emergency or mass casualty um event.

The planning meeting will be held October 27th to bring in our partners, and the Indiana Department of Homeland Securities exercise team has agreed to participate.

So that's a big win for us.

Researchers from Harvard's THC School of Public Health will be conducting a research study of our fresh bucks program with assistance from MCPHD staff.

The researchers will combine participant survey data collected by MCPHD with fresh bucks transaction data, and that's how much the incentives the participants earn and spend to identify participant characteristics that are associated with the frequency, a dollar amount, and length of time, the fresh box, as well as their impact on fruit and vegetable consumption.

And that is the quantitative portion of the study.

The qualitative portion of the study, the researcher will conduct focus groups with fresh bucks users to understand their food preferences and health intentions, their motivation for and value of participating in the program, and the stigma and barriers of using fresh bucks.

And lastly, the MCPHD diabetes self-management education program, a program that is offered in libraries and online each month, taught by a nurse, dietitian, pharmacist, social worker, or a health educator.

The program is accredited by the association of diabetes care and education specialist, and within a week, the diabetes team received the feedback from the association that the program is in full compliance with no deficiencies.

That completes my report for Dr.

Kane.

Thank you.

Are there any questions for the Marion County Public Health Department?

All right.

Actually, I I this two.

Nurses, physicians, emergency departments staff are particularly affected, although no one is immune.

And in a four in a um the last national nursing survey, 40% of respondents reported having experienced a significant uh increase in episodes of violence uh over recent years.

Safety net health systems have perhaps a particular challenge given the multiple stresses that affect the populations of patients we serve.

And what we what we discussed was not in any way a reflection on all of our patients, or even primarily our a reflection on our patients, but uh a reflection on the tone of the times uh of which I think everyone is aware.

Uh as caregivers, we work to balance empathy and understanding of the challenges and the stresses our patients uh face uh while at the same time uh we balance that with concern for the safety of our staff and our patients and our visitors, which which needs to be uh paramount.

So Tracy Martin, our chief nursing officer, uh, gave a very thorough assessment of where things stand currently.

She discussed data regarding uh both episodes of verbal and uh physical uh aggression of on the part of uh patients against staff members.

She discussed both the numbers and the nature of some of those acts of aggression and violence.

Uh we also spent a lot of time talking about all that we do to work to de-escalate to diffuse uh situations uh that are arising again with the interest of promoting uh staff and visitor safety.

Uh we discussed how the security team is a an integral part of the healthcare team and is really viewed as part of uh part of the caregiving uh team, and how our security team has grown significantly over recent years, as has the need for for presence grown.

And so uh, for example, as we've added metal detection at multiple points within the hospital campus and also at the Grandy Health Center at 38th in Arlington, all of uh uh the metal detectors require uh staffing, so that that has increased the number of uh security individuals.

Also, we now have a physical presence of our security folks across uh the whole health system, both here on the hospital campus, but also on a rotating basis, but sometimes a fixed basis and in others a rotating basis among all of our outlying uh sites across the city.

We also deploy technology uh in an effort at surveillance and vigilance so uh staff have uh centrec uh buttons on their badges that they can press to immediately at a moment of duress so they can uh it's you know uh geo monitoring so uh security can be aware of their exact uh present their uh location within the organization.

The ASCOM phones uh that our staff carry also have a single button uh they can push to summon security.

We have 2200 panic buttons uh across uh our facilities, 837 security cameras, and 1,500 car badge card or badge reader um entrances, and that's really to tighten up uh the points of entry.

And in doing that, one of our biggest challenges is our culture, which is very accommodating and helpful.

And so, as we've been doing all this, part of the messaging the staff is we really need we just can't be letting people in who don't have the proper uh credentials, so that has been a bit of a of a learning curve.

Then of course, we uh we have the metal detectors.

We also um have uh we do active shooter training for all uh new employees, and it's part of ongoing education.

We actually uh uh created an active uh shooter video uh with support from METS.

This is years ago, and that's actually still in national distribution as a training video for uh uh active shooter response.

Uh and then uh finally we train all of our staff in a VAID, and this stands for awareness, vigilance, avoidance, defense, and escape, and these are the uh actions in that order taken to you know try to anticipate and and and know how to act appropriately in the event of an episode.

We've conducted 191 classes in a VA training over the uh organization and at this point have trained over 3500 of our roughly 5,000 individuals employed uh at Espanazzi Health.

So that concludes my Eskenazi Health Committee report.

I'm happy to take any questions.

Are there any questions for Dr.

Earlson on the health committee?

All right.

So next uh is the quality committee report.

And we first had uh Lori Thorpe, who is director of our orthopedic service line, and she gave an overview of our total hip and knee program, which is a program that has been certified by the joint commission since 2019.

We adhere to uh standard clinical practice guidelines of the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons, American Association Hip and Knee Surgeons, and the American Association of Orthopedic Surgery Nurses as well as the National Institutes of Health.

We measure uh there are core measures that we report as part of this, uh getting people up uh and ambulating the day of surgery, our use of regional anesthesia, our success in discharging people straight to home as opposed to having to spend time in rehab, and our preoperative uh functional functional assessment.

Uh, we do especially well in that functional measure where uh we have a significantly increased uh improvement for both uh hip and knee replacements compared to national data.

Uh we uh so again, you know, the highlights are just uh we we excel at screening for functional status and support of patients at the time of discharge, getting patients up and out of the hospital quickly, improving functional outcomes after surgery, and that um concludes my report.

Or I'm sorry, that's that's the first half of the quality report.

The second half uh uh was provided by Dr.

Chris Callahan, who is our chief research and development uh officer, and he gave an overview of the CMS quality measures and the methodology.

This is the um way in which we're measured uh compared to 2,890 other hospitals across the country.

We are uh it's a continuous comparison against uh peers.

Uh the scale is uh one to five stars uh with most falling in the middle, about 24 percent or two stars, uh 33 percent or three stars and give and uh another 25 percent, four stars.

Uh we currently are at three stars.

We have been at four stars in the past and are striving to regain uh that uh four-star status.

Um the three programs that are uh assessed through a very complicated methodology data assessment over uh as a look back period of one to four years with uh penalties, uh monetary penalties assigned uh to um not uh you know uh competing successfully against peers, also of whom are everyone whom is also working to improve uh the programs are hospital acquired conditions reduction program, hospital readmission reduction program, the hospital value-based payment uh program.

And so that that concludes my report.

Happy to take any questions about there any questions for Dr.

Harris.

That uh thank you, Dr.

Harris.

That'll uh bring us to Dr.

Ashley Overly, our uh CEO of the San Eskanazi Mental Health Center.

Thank you, Chairman Lazard.

Um first I'd like to share that on September 11th and 12th last month, we received our on-site survey from the State Division of Mental Health and Addiction for our carrying recovery opioid treatment program.

This is an annual visit that assesses compliance with state opioid treatment program standards.

This includes an extensive review of patient charts, policy and procedures, staff training, incident reports, disaster preparedness, facilities reviews, and includes also staff and patient interviews.

We received our formal report from this visit, and this report was very encouraging and identified many strengths of the program.

I would like to share a few quotes from the report.

The OTP continues to foster a welcoming environment with visible efforts to support both patients and staff.

Security cameras are monitored both on-site and off-site.

The parking lot is clean and well lit.

The agency has implemented innovative workforce initiatives to support staffing and service delivery.

The facility is equipped with an AED and an eloxone box demonstrating the agency's commitment to emergency preparedness and overdose prevention.

And finally, patient artwork is proudly displayed in the facility, contributing to a sense of community and ownership, which I felt particularly proud of.

So importantly, we also had no deficiencies identified on this visit.

So we remain a state certified opioid treatment program and are very proud of our OTP team.

Additionally, I'd like to share that on Wednesday, October 8th, we held the first ever John and Kathy Ackerman Mental Health Professional Development Center Symposium.

This was an event focused on overcoming barriers to dual diagnosis care.

Dual diagnosis care is a term referring to co-occurring mental health and addiction diagnoses.

This was a full-day professional development event designed to enhance care and improve outcomes for individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders across all of our care sites in Sandraskenazi Mental Health Center.

This was an event that was attended by all Sandraskenazi Mental Health Center staff and helped us accomplish CCDHC goals of implementing evidence-based practices across the Mental Health Center.

Additionally, we were joined by community partners who also serve our clients, also supporting CCVHC requirements of enhanced care coordination and collaboration across the community.

So the event was well received, anything very encouraging to our entire mental health center.

And that concludes my report.

Are there any questions for Dr.

Overly?

Hearing none, uh welcome back uh uh Chuck Ford, who is the chief of staff at the IEMS.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, and good afternoon to the board.

I am Chuck Ford, Dr.

O'Donnell's chief of staff.

I'm pitching for him today.

I have a short report beginning with some run volume data.

As of yesterday, we have responded to 116,559 911 calls.

That's up 2.5% from last year at the same time.

Uh right now our daily average is 401 responses a day.

So we're very busy.

Last week we had our reaccreditation visit from the Committee on Accreditation of EMS programs.

That's the national accrediting uh body that accredits paramedic programs.

All paramedic programs for the state of Indiana must be accredited nationally.

And I'm pleased to report they went extremely well.

Um we had no citations and no recommendations.

The accreditors spoke highly of the program, and they expect that we will receive a five-year certification, which is good.

That means I don't have to deal with it.

Our latest recruit academy is underway.

This is a combination of our most recent EMT trainee graduates and EMTs and paramedics who are already licensed in the state.

It's also the largest group we've ever had with 43 new IEMS EMTs and paramedics during the service.

The recruits will graduate next Friday, October 31st, and they will move on to the field training portion of the program.

Voting is underway for the National Association of EMT's board of directors, and one of our EMS educators, Dennis Scales, has been nominated for a board position to represent the Midwest district.

Voting is underway now and it will end October 31st.

We're excited to welcome EMS X World Expo to the City of Indianapolis.

This is the largest EMS-focused conference in the world.

And the first time it's ever been to Indianapolis.

IEMS has a very large presence at the event this week.

We are the host agency.

Thank you.

Appreciate you your being here and filling in for Dr.

O'Donnell.

With that, I'll uh turn it over for our long-term care report to uh our president, CEO of Health and Hospital Corporation.

Yep.

I am stepping in for Julie White.

She has written me a very succinct report, and I'm going to read directly from it.

She says residence occupancy increase from 76 to 78%, with average census near 6,000 residents.

The quality team review conducted a total of eight visits.

AHCA and NCAL launched Caregivers for Tomorrow, a new initiative designed to advance policy solutions that strengthen and sustain the long-term care workforce.

On October 1st, Congress allowed the Medicare telehealth flexibilities to expire, and a U.S.

federal government shutdown was announced.

Nursing home operations are expected to continue with minimal immediate impact.

Federal surveys and certifications are limited with the focus on the most serious complaint investigations related to harm.

Routine surveys and inspections for less serious complaints are suspended for the duration of the shutdown.

Revisit surveys will be conducted when necessary to determine compliance and prevent the scheduled Medicare termination of a provider or supplier.

And that concludes Julie's report.

Are there any questions for uh Mr.

Babcock?

Hearing none, uh is there any unfinished business to come before the board?

Hearing none, I'll ask if there's any new business to come before the board.

I believe no one signed up for public comment.

So that takes us to the date of our next meeting, which is Tuesday, November 18, 2025.

And I'll ask for a motion to adjourn.

Then move to adjourn.

We are adjourned.