Like a New York minute, Thursday evening’s meeting of the Estes Park Health Board of Directors was almost not a meeting.
That’s because 15 minutes after calling the meeting to order, all agenda items had been covered, and the meeting was adjourned.
Although not on the agenda, Cory Workman, chair of the EPH Board, explained that the transfer of EPH to UCHealth operations has been delayed from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1 because the Larimer County Commissioners need to review the service plan.
“This is something that is required before we can close,” Workman said. He cited that the original service plan, which established the hospital district, is changing and must be reapproved by Larimer County.
The subject of UCHealth’s proposed acquisition of EPH must be published as a printed public notice at least 20 days before the County Commissioners discuss it. The County is responsible for selecting the date for the hearing on the planned acquisition and for publishing a legal advertisement regarding the meeting.
In other affiliation-related tasks, assisting staff with completing pre-employment paperwork has been a key focus, according to Vern Carda, EPH CEO.
“We’ve had to make sure that offer letters and pre-employment paperwork are in the hands of each employee,” Carda told the Board. At this point, staff must complete online forms to initiate the transition from being an EPH employee to becoming a UCHealth employee, he said.
Carda also said that other affiliation transition work has included planning for the Board’s transition to independence from hospital management.
“We’ll need to figure out a new website, new email addresses, and create a plan that helps the district manage its workload going forward,” Carda said.
On, off, on…
Thursday’s meeting had been set as a substitute for the Board’s regular September meeting. Wednesday morning, a reminder notice about the meeting time was emailed to the EPH newsletter list and posted on social media. However, in a subsequent message, the public was notified that the Thursday meeting had been cancelled.
After the cancellation notices were sent, another message saying that the meeting would be held was distributed. The confusion may have been the reason only four members of the public were in attendance.
The EPH Board of Directors is not scheduled to meet again until Oct. 30.