The Salem Township Hospital Board of Directors heard a presentation on the 2024 financial audit by Paul Traczek and David Goodman of Wipfli LLP that showed no issues. Hospital CEO Jim Timpe said the clean audit and healthy balance means good things for the hospital’s future as it’s able to reinvest money in projects.
“It’s a great outcome,” Timpe said. “It shows our financial people are doing everything right and that we’re still able to take good care of the community and have enough funds to be very viable. Compared to other sites in Illinois, we are doing better than some of the other small community hospitals, so we’re in a great position to continue offering services for many years to come.”
There was also discussion of the Epic MyChart system, which the hospital has been using since September 18. Timpe says that work has been steady on fully integrating the new system for staff and patients.
“Any time you go to a new system it’s hard on the colleagues. They’ve been such champions and done a great job working with the system, and I have to commend the pubic for their patience for the first couple of weeks while we were doing the transition… We’re very lucky to be able to get on Epic as a small hospital. Because of that, our staff is able to use what’s really the best system they could possibly use. Now that they’re using it, they love it.”
Pre-construction engineering work has begun for the planned operating room and emergency room renovations that were approved in September. Ground is expected to be broken for that work in the summer of next year, though Timpe said some demolition may take place in the spring.
