An architect is expected on site in the next couple of weeks to start drawing plans for a remodeling project at East Texas Medical Center of Fairfield for which about $5.6 million is available.

Remodeling, which will start with the emergency room and include upgrades throughout the facility, follows a hospital master plan developed by ETMC and approved by Fairfield Hospital District, owner and landlord.

ETMC administrator Raz Cook reports that an estimated $3.6 million has been budgeted for capital expenditures over the next three years.

Funding by ETMC for the improvements became available when the hospital district board of directors decided to guarantee indigent care payments.

To guarantee the payments, the district is investing funds in the Upper Payment Limits program administered through Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U.S. Department of Human Services.

FHD receives a 3-for-1 return on its money in the UPL program and already has deposited $2 million, which will compound to $6 million.

At a meeting last week, the hospital board authorized putting up to $1 million more into the UPL program. Result of the investment, and freeing ETMC from having to absorb indigent care costs, is that the remodeling project can proceed at a faster pace.

"It's very exciting that we can accelerate these improvements," FHD board chairman Monte Cole says.

Under the facility master improvement plan, about $8 million will be spent over the next decade upgrading the hospital.

In addition to enlarging the emergency room area, the plan calls for upgrading and enlarging patient rooms, providing more laboratory and pharmacy space, and relocating some offices.

ETMC has leased the hospital from FHD and operated the facility for 10 years.

The board took a brief look at a proposed budget for fiscal year 2009-10 that calls for $1.04 million in expenses, of which more than half the budget is earmarked for reserves and the UPL program.

The new budget will not be adopted until property tax values are certified later this month. The 2008 property tax rate was 3.659 cents per $100 assessed property value.

Board members agreed to give executive assistant Larry Ivy a raise to $40,000 per year, from a salary of $33,600.

"I could not serve in this capacity without the work Larry does," Cole says.

Ivy is the only employee of the district and keeps up with bank deposits, meeting with ETMC representatives, correspondence, meeting preparation, budgeting and elections.

The only voice of dissent was raised by J.R. Corne who questioned whether the executive assistant salary was already high enough in comparison with comparable jobs. Corne abstained from voting on the pay raise.

Mrs. Cook reports that a new CAT scan is installed and operating. The equipment, which cost $1 million, is an improvement from a 8-slice imaging system to a 64-slice system.