Russell County Hospital CEO David Rasmussen gave an update Tuesday at the hospital board's monthly meeting on the building project status, saying the architectural plans were currently 95 percent complete.

He said they are waiting on a bid document to go out and that the hospital was still in wait-and-see mode as to how much funding they could receive to go toward the project.

If funding is released for the project, Rasmussen said officials from the hospital and board should also make a trip to Washington D.C. to speak with legislators about the need for expansion.

He said some minor architectural tweaking could take place but other than that the funding is the only thing preventing expansion at the moment. The projects architects, The Estopinal Group, will make another visit to the board in the future to give another update on the building project status.

Rasmussen also said all of the hospital's patient satisfaction scores were up over the previous month and thanked the hospital's staff for their dedicated service.

In other happenings at the meeting:

o In giving the month's financial report, CFO Ken Kimsal said the overall year to date basis revenue is two percent below budget, with inpatient revenue being 15 percent below budget and outpatient revenue one percent ahead of budget.

"With outpatient being the majority of our revenue it only makes the overall about two percent below budget," Kimsal said. "Our charity is increasing more than our bad debts."

He said at the end of the nine months of this fiscal year the hospital has an operating revenue of just under $200,000 and the net income is just over $1 million. Overall, the hospital is about $127,000 below budget on their bottom line.

As of March 31, the hospital's total liabilities and net assets are$16,442,901.

o The board approved the hospital's updated visitation, patient safety and tobacco free policies at the meeting, a move already done by the hospital's medical staff. Of major note is the tobacco free policy which will prohibit tobacco of any kind on the hospital's campus beginning May 2. Dr. Kent Gibson said the entire medical staff was behind the move to go tobacco free as many healthcare facilities have done in recent years.

o The hospital board went into executive session regarding pending or present litigation. Upon returning to regular session the board gave authority to board attorney Jeff Hoover to discuss with a former employee a complaint or problem.

o The board approved medical staff privileges presented by Dr. Gibson, the hospital's chief of staff.

o The meeting was the first for new board member Sheldon Stephens who replaces longtime board member Rodney Johnson.