The Washington County Hospital Board met last night and Information Technology Officer, Kim Larkin, says they are staying ahead of the patient usage of the Patient Portal, being around 18 percent now. The Meaningful Use requirement for Stage II is that 5 percent of the patients actually use the portal once they leave the hospital. This was a problem for many months in the beginning, but she says the reporting calendar has changed, so those first 3 months are dropped from the reporting time and they are looking good. There will still be some money coming in from reimbursements they made to get in compliance with Meaningful Use, such as nearly $60,000 recently, but that will be tapering off soon. NextGen is still working on increasing the speed and performance of the hospital’s computer system, but there has not been a problem with receiving updates for a while now, as they are going smoother. The Board approved of the Strategic Plan for this year, as it had been taken around the hospital for everyone to look at and make comments about. There is a concern that there is a need for an adolescent pediatric nurse practitioner in the area, as well as how to curb the obesity issue. The list of Medical Staff Officers for 2015 to 2017 was approved by the Board and Dr. Urdaneta will be the President, Dr. Siddiqui will be the Vice President and Dr. Donaldson will be the Secretary. Hospital Chief Executive Officer Nancy Newby says there has been plenty of good feedback on Dr. Fewell, as she is doing well. Also Cardialogist Dr. Murthy has been coming to Nashville during the past 3 months from Mount Vernon and he has been getting good feedback. The telepsyche services have been increasing with Dr. Yasin, while Sandra Tate, a pediatric – adolescent nurse practitioner will be at the clinic for a couple days a week beginning next month. A couple of new doctors will be added to the ER beginning next month. There is a need for a dermatologist in the area, so they will look into that. Finally, she reported that the Annual Health Fair is Wednesday, May 13th from 7 to 10 AM at the hospital. They have between 12 and 15 exhibitors, as well as the blood testing at reduced rates. She says they usually have about 300 people come for the event.