At a special meeting called for today (Monday, Sept. 21) the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital board of commissioners is expected to hire a consulting firm Edie Bailly, for a departmental productivity analysis, and to approve a contract for television advertising with EZTV Spots.com.
Chief Operating Officer Tom Parker said the two actions were both prompted by staff recommendations.
The consultation from Eide Bailly in particular, he said, “has been discussed for recent months,” by staff looking at ways to improve efficiency in operations.
“They’ll do legwork for us in finding operations that are similar to ours across the country,” Parker said, and then compare those organizations’ productivity data with the hospital’s data to identify potential areas for improving efficiency.
According to the contract, the data to be evaluated will be from the Nursing, Rehabilitation, and Emergency Departments only. Information included will be core staffing requirements, utilization of staff, admissions throughput from the emergency department, hospital policies and staff scheduling, and patient satisfaction. Terms of the contract will not require the consultants to actually visit the hospital, or to make recommendations for any other departments. Cost of the consultant contract will be $6,500 to $7,500. Parker could not say when the analysis work would begin.
TV ads for the hospital, however, are scheduled to begin running on Saturday, Oct. 3, on the TLC, OWN, Hallmark and Food networks. The ads, created by EZTV Spots as part of the contract, will be directed at women, based on demographic research done by the company.
“Our belief is that the major decider in the family, is Mom,” Parker said, “and that’s the person who it’s important for them to know about emergency services.”
The commercials are slated to run more than 1,300 times from Oct. 3 to Jan. 3, at a cost of $7,400. The three month-term is a standard purchase term for television, Parker said, adding that he didn’t consider the ads to be a trial run.
“We believe it’s an excellent use of funds,” he said.
The special meeting of the board is 6:30 p.m. tonight in the hospital conference room.
The next regular meeting of the hospital board is 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1 at Snoqualmie City Hall. Commissioners are also meeting the evening before, for a strategic planning session. All hospital board meetings are open to the public.
