Riverside hold AGM in Rainy River

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Riverside Health Care Facilities, which oversees hospitals and long term care facilities in Rainy River, Emo and Fort Frances held its Annual General Meeting in Rainy River Thursday.
The attendance was sparse in comparison to a decade ago when arenas were packed with hundreds of voting members from the three communities. There were fourteen people in the gallery and nearly as many board members holding the meeting.
Two items topped the agenda; the corporation’s financial status and the first actual election of officers in years.
CEO Wayne Woods reported that the corp. had a deficit for the second time in two years. For 2008/09 they ended the year March 31st with a $950,192 deficit; more than triple the previous year’s $229,649.
Woods said the deficit is due mostly to, “One time expenses.” He noted that they received 2.1% increase in government funding but at the same time wages rose by 3-3.5% and supplies went up by 5-10%. “I feel we will be back on track this year.”
For the first time in a number of years the board had more people interested in being on the board than there were seats. Long time Wendy Judson served the maximum number of terms without taking a break and Sarah Berg of Rainy River stepped down after a three year term. Two other seats, including Norma Elliott’s of Rainy River, were up for election. However, five individuals indicated they would run for the seats.
In the end Norma Elliott (reelected), Troy L’Hirondelle (reelected), Sandy Skirten and Jason Kabel were elected. Noreen Robertson was not but was thanked for her interest.
Other news
•CEO Wayne Woods spoke of the start up of the new CT Scanner as a proud moment this year. He also noted that work to bring Rainycrest up to modern standards is progressing well and that Rainy River Health Centre has a new state of the art fitness centre. He was also pleased with a public opinion survey of the facilities Riverside oversees coming in at 4.64 out of 5. “We will continue to strive for improvements and perhaps this year it will be 4.9!”
•All four Auxiliaries reported busy years with Emo just announcing that they donated $10,000 this past week for a cardiac monitor. Rainycrest Aux. donated almost $38,000 to the facility last year. LaVerendrye reported that it was able to raise $41,000 of its pledges to Riverside Foundation. Rainy River made nearly $30,000 in donations.
•The Dr. shortage in Fort Frances was the main issue of the report of the chief of staff Dr. Phillip Whatley.
•There were several ‘house keeping’ bylaws passed at the meeting:
The first saw the facilities’ histories updated in the bylaws.
A new mission statement was passed.
Definitions in the bylaws of the various types of facilities in the corp. were reworked.
The board regularly grants privileges to doctors on a six month basis. That was changed to one year.