Riverside Health Care board takes care of business at annual meeting in Rainy River

Ken Johnston
Editor

It was short and to the point!
The annual meeting of the Riverside Health Care Facilities Board was held in Rainy River last Thursday with only 10 people in attendance; besides the 12 board members.
CEO of the corporation, Wayne Woods, said that despite the failure of the board to get phase IV of the renovations to LaVerendrye Hospital in Fort Frances started, “We had a fairly successful year.”
Highlights included a brand new ambulance service building in Rainy River and improvements to the Emo ambulance service building.
Woods said that the corporation was also successful in pleading its case for more funding from the Ministry of Health. Board members appeared before a third party review panel in Thunder Bay and, “We came away with the lion’s share of the money, other than Thunder Bay who is much larger than us,” said Woods. They received $901,100 in additional funding for expenses on the year.
Despite that Woods noted that the corporation had a small operating deficit at year’s end, but after bringing in some capital in they ended the year with a surplus.
John Evans of Dunwoody, an accounting firm in Fort Frances, said that they feel that Riverside’s statements reflect a true picture of the organization’s fiscal health and operations.
Chief of Staff, Dr. Bob Elgie, expressed the view of the staff when he said, “We have a lot to be thankful here; not having any SARS cases breakout.” He and Woods said that the entire SARS scare was a learning experience.
Algie said there is a lot of competition out there for hospital staffing and that, “We will have to work harder to get new grads here.”
Brig McGreevy reported that the Riverside Foundation, the fund raising arm of the local hospital system in Fort Frances, Emo and Rainy River, had another successful year. It donated $650,000 to Riverside Health Care Facilities.
All three hospital auxiliaries reported another successful year, although Fort Frances noted that due to the SARS scare their business at the hospital tuck shop was virtually shut down. They held some other fund raising events including a tag day to make up for the lost revenue.
Elections were held with the following people either returning or being elected for the first time: Jeanne Jewell, Wendy Judson, Brigitta McGreevy, Norma Elliott, Robert Stamler and Terry Elwood.
Pat Giles left the board after serving 9 years, some of which he was chair. He received a gift from the board for his years of service.
Ted Kaemingh also left the board after serving one term.
The entire meeting took only 25 minutes.