With the assent of all the board, Russell County Hospital hired The Estopinal Group as the architects for its proposed renovation and expansion.

With an estimated cost of $15 million for the project the architects fee would be $750,000.

The decision came after a day of interviews with several firms and ratings of the presentations by staff, administration, and board members.

Administrative Assistant Teresa Spaw compiled the ratings and itemized the six companies’ presentations.

Dr. Rick Miles summed up the presentations and ratings by saying that the firm included many componenents of the project within the proposal and did so at the best rate.

Stengle Hill and JRA were the other two groups in final consideration. Interim CEO George Walz said those three groups were the most higly recommended by others at hospitals around the area.

That discussion came after over an hour of executive session for interviewing a Chief Executive Officer candidate.

With that concluded, it was decided two candidates should be brought back for final interviews.

The board heard a report from Chief Financial Officer Ken Kimsal on the previous month's performance.

He told them the hospital operated 10 percent below budget for the month of April, but still showed a $99, 781 for the month and $1,387,294 for the year as of the end of that month.

Kimsal pointed out that the year-to-date figures were still ahead of budget and the previous year's performance.

Also on the issue of finances, a number of uncollected bills were up for discussion. Walz explained that the collection agency the hospital had used until a couple of years ago had returned some uncollected bills from 2005-07 and the hospital had sent out bills, and letters, to the patients involved.

The reaction had been decidedly negative, according to the board.

“From the calls I've received we could be doing more damage than good in trying to collect these bills,” Board Member Mark Antle said.

Kimsal responded to questioning about the total due saying that it was about $500,000.

Miles asked if he was expecting 10 percent redemption, and Kimsal replied, “if that.”

In the end the board decided to not press the matter and Miles stressed that the hospital should stop repeating the mistake of threatening everyone with collection on every bill sent out.

Walz said any letters sent out in the future would be reviewed by the administration before being sent.