December 18, 2014 I The Lovell Chronicle 13
DAVID PECK
Lovell Elementary School second-graders (l-r) Wilson Hendershot, Lindsey
Scheid and Addisyn Perkins enjoy singing during the annual LES Christmas
concert directed by Chauna Bischoff at the Hyart Theatre.
Lovell second-
grader
Johnathon
MacPeek gets
into shaking
his percussion
egg during
the Lovell
Elementary
School
Christmas
concert at the
Hyart Theatre
Tuesday night.
DAVID PECK
New online resource allows
consumers to compare hospitals
BY PATrl CARPENTER
The Wyoming Hospital
Association (WHA) has un-
veiled an online resource
for consumers who want
to compare hospitals in the
State. The system is called
Wyoming CheckPoint and
is designed to give a "snap-
shot" of the performance of
Wyoming hospitals.
Hospitals voluntarily
report information to the
WHA, which, in turn, con-
verts it to a user-friend-
ly format that allows con-
sumers to see how hospitals
perform in key areas.
According to North Big
Horn Hospital CEO Rick
Schroeder, the project,
which is a year in the mak-
ing, takes information that
is reported to a number of
government agencies on a
regular basis and puts it in
a user-friendly format for
consumers.
"The thing is, we send
all of these reports to CMS
and to other regulatory
agencies," explained Schro-
eder. "What this does is
consolidate this informa-
tion that we are mandat-
ed by law to report. There
are big consequences for in-
correct reporting to these
agencies, so the informa-
tion is very accurate."
Schroeder points out
that, unlike other systems
where hospitals can report
whatever they want, the
CheckPoint system com-
pares info that is legally re-
quired and since all hospi-
tals are required by law to
report the same informa-
tion, it provides a true ap-
ples-to-apples comparison.
Schroeder said he likes
the fact that the informa-
tion is more current than
abo ChkPoint :
at you
see things w.e are
work,rig 6n dght
now. Raft peQple
provides a picture of what
we do and an opportuni-
ty for us to show how good
we are. I think it's better
than any other comparison
or transparency type tool
that's out there."
The system was orig-
inally developed by the
Wisconsin Hospital Asso-
ciation, which allowed the
state of Wyoming to mod-
el its program in a similar
manner.
"With this informa-
tion, you can see how of-
proviae me me: ten each hospital provides
sewisthat we doi recommended care for pa-
It a[[OWSto tients with certain condi-
....... tions or the progress hos-
pitals have made toward
national patient safety
goals," states the Check-
Point website. "This infor-
mation may be used by the
public to compare how dif-
ferent hospitals perform
and to promote quality im-
provement efforts within
hospitals."
A quick look at www.
wyocheckpoint.org shows
..... ........................ North Big Horn Hospi-
other online sources. He
said the data is at most
three months old compared
to a year old on other com-
parison sites.
"The good thing about
CheckPoint is that you can
see things we are working
on right now," said Schro-
eder. "It allows people to
know what they're getting
when they come here and
to compare us with other
hospitals that provide the
same services that we do.
It allows them to compare
us against the benchmark,
against the state average
and against the national
average and I really like
that. I think it's good. It's
tal exceeding in all areas
based on patient experi-
ence surveys.
"I'm really proud of
our ratings," said Schroed-
er. "Patients definitely rec-
ommend the hospital and
they rate our doctors and
nurses as always commu-
nicating well. The patients
surveyed said they always
receive requested help, the
staff always explains med-
ications, the pain is always
controlled well, it is al-
ways quiet here, the rooms
are always clean and the
staff always provides dis-
charge instructions. Isn't
that what every consumer
would like to see?"
BYRON COUNCIL MEETING continued from page I
Darrah explained that
the resolution protects
Scheeler from having to
relocate the home. And, he
said, it protects the town
ii:.boting that "the town
:does not view the inad-
vertent and mistaken ap-
proval of the placement of
the manufactured home to
mean that the town will
no longer enforce its zon-
ing ordinances." Also, that
the town "recognizes that
the placement of a manu-
factured home in the C-G
Zone was done under the
mistaken belief by the
town and the home own-
er that all requirements
for placing the home at
that location had been
met." The attorney also ex-
pressed several times that
zoning and planning rules
are good for any communi-
ty as "they promote com-
munity harmony and qual-
ity of life."
Brightly's concerns in
her letter take Hopkinson
to task regarding the may-
or-elect's desire to place a
single-wide manufactured
home on her Main Street
property, which has had
a stick-built home on it
for many years. However,
it is in disrepair. Bright-
ly states, "Your stand is
that we have not turned in
our 'required paper work'
(for a variance). My stand
is I expressed, at the first
meeting, that in order for
us to continue we need-
ed to know if it were pos-
sible to even accomplish
this. Thus public meetings
and regular meetings were
conducted until winter has
made it impossible to do
anything even if we want-
ed or were allowed.
"There is still no real
answer. Another factor,
Mayor Hopkinson, your
term as mayor will soon ex-
pire and it has been appar-
ent to me and others who
have attended the council
meetings that mindsof the
council' are made up and
no amount of paperwork
was going to change that.
I am a reasonable and pa-
tient person. It is, also,
my belief that my proper-
ty on Main Street in By-
ron was 'taken' from me
when it was rezoned com-
mercial general. It has
historically been residen-
tial since the beginning of
Byron." In a conversation
with a reporter on Mon-
day, Dec. 8, Brightly in-
dicated her belief that the
actions of a former mayor
can be changed by a new
mayor. After the meeting
on the 16th she expressed
dismay that her letter was
disregarded.
Hopkinson said this
week that "Mayor-elect
Brightly and her compan-
ion Ed Diaz misunderstand
the actions the council is
taking on Title 11 and seem
to assume our actions are in
some way connected to their
desire to place a single-wide
manufactured home in a
zone where it is not allowed.
Mayor-elect Brightly has a
non-conforming residential
use on her property. The
council has never discussed
or considered changing the
zoning to allow single-wide
manufactured homes in
Commercial General. This
was explained at regular
council meetings, the pub-
lic meeting and again at the
first reading."
In other matters last
week:
After a 41-minute ex-
ecutive session with Dar-
rah, closed to the press
and public, the coun-
cil voted 4-1 to raise the
compensation for meeting
attendance by the may-
or by $20 mo,rerpe.r meet-
ing for a total of,70 and
by $10 more per meeting
for councilmen for a total
of $40. Councilor Sydney
Hessenthalter abstained
from voting because she
is remaining on the coun-
cil, being elected in 2011,
while Alan Bair and Wal-
ter Roman were re-elect-
ed to new four-year terms
in November. They and
Gary Petrich, elected to a
two-year term to replace
Wilson, who didn't seek
re-election, will be sworn
into office on Jan. 5.
Clerk/Treasurer Don-
na Booth's wage was
raised to $18 per hour
with the mayor noting that
even with the raise it's less
than other comparable po-
sitions in the county. The
mayor also observed that
Booth is doing "a great
job" and is doing work pre-
viously handled by three
people. ....
Three new members
to the town's Recreation
Dept. were OK'd. Derek
Morgan, Rebecca Bates
and Hopkinson will join
Tami Asay, Summer Lof-
gran and Carl Watts. Hes-
senthaler, council liaison
to the committee, recom-
mended the new members.
The council approved
5-0 paying the November
bills of $33,617 and the
month's payroll of $9,968.
The bills include payments
of $5,130 and $9,595 for
work at the newly refur-
bished Byron Memori-
al Park. Hopkinson ex-
plained that the first
amount was donated and
the second is from a grant.
]
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Open Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1-5 pm I
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Or by private appointment. Call 406-855-0234 I
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Monday, December 29, 2014 at 7:00 pm
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FOOD COURT
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and your belly.., i 548-7979
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