Gary Keir, speaking to the Lewis County Board of Legislators as the county's representative to the hospital Board of Managers, reported that the county nursing home planned to resume admissions in mid-March and provided a summary of hospital operations and finances.

Why it matters: Resuming nursing-home admissions affects availability of long-term care in the county; the hospital's financial position and staffing challenges can influence service availability and county fiscal exposure.

What was reported

- Admissions and volume: Keir said acute admissions, observation cases and total emergency-department visits were up. Physician-office revenue rose in orthopedics.

- Nursing home admissions: Hospital leadership reported they will start admitting residents into the nursing home in mid-March, Keir said.

- Finances: The hospital reported a loss for January (Keir summarized the figure as better than budget; he cited a January loss in the range of several hundred thousand dollars but noted performance beat the monthly budget projection). He said salaries were under budget due to open positions while purchased services were higher because of travelers, increasing purchased-services expense by about $500,000.

- Staffing and state directive: Keir said the New York State Department of Health is requiring hospitals to have a chief information security officer by October. The hospital is considering combining the chief information officer and chief information security officer roles; the advertised salary cap of $180,000 may be below market for a candidate and recruiting could be difficult.

- Operations and additions: Keir said planned renovations in the general surgery office (adding a procedure room and clinic room) should finish in the month and that a podiatrist is expected to join orthopedics in August 2025; an ophthalmologist will begin surgical cases in April.

Quoted from the meeting: "Probably the key takeaway for the board of managers is we are going to start admitting, in mid March, into the nursing home," Keir said. He also told legislators the hospital posted a January loss but "it's better than budget." On cybersecurity staffing, Keir said hospitals across the state are paying substantially more and finding recruitment challenging.

Context and next steps: Keir invited legislators to attend board-of-managers and finance-committee meetings and noted regular finance packets are produced monthly. He encouraged legislators to review the materials and offered more detailed briefings by request. The hospital will continue work on recruitment for the combined CIO/CISO role and monitor operating performance against budget.

Ending: Keir closed by noting the hospital's economic impact on the region and stressing transparency through finance reporting to the Board of Legislators.