RGH set to interview two doctors

PORTALES — Roosevelt General Hospital’s push to move away from contractors and hire on its own is showing promise, according to CEO Kaye Green.

At the RGH Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday night, Green reported the hospital requires four full-time emergency room doctors, and she’s already interviewed 10.

“We’re inviting the top two of them so far for interviews this Friday and the following Monday,” she said, adding that one of the positions has been filled internally, and another doctor who currently works through a contractor has shown interest in working directly for RGH.

“That really just means we need two more full-times in the gap,” she said. “I originally estimated this could take 10 to 12 months to make the transition to our own employed physicians, and I think it may be much quicker than that. I think it actually could be four to five months from now.”

Also at Tuesday’s meeting:

• Clinic Administrator Tina Hill reported that the RGH Clinic will only see acute cases of the flu in the coming weeks.

“At this time, we are only going to see acute patients, to limit any exposure to those patients that could wait for wellness visits and things like that,” she said.

In the past week alone, the clinic saw over 1,100 patients with flu-like symptoms, according to Hill.

• Trustees approved credentials for two doctors — one will work in telemedicine and the other in the emergency room — and privileges for ophthalmology doctors to provide sedation to their patients.

• Trustees approved a resolution confirming the board’s compliance with the New Mexico Open Meetings Act.

• The board’s 2018 meeting schedule was approved. The schedule sets each RGH board meeting on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

The board’s December 2018 meeting, however, was moved from Dec. 25 to Dec. 18.

• Trustees approved the re-election of Paul Benoit as chairman of the board and Doug Stone as secretary treasurer.