WASHINGTON STATE SOCIETY
FOR HEALTHCARE ENGINEERING

EASTERN CHAPTER
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
SAMARITAN HEALTHCARE, MOSES LAKE, WA
MARCH 14, 2008

MINUTES

Present:
Chris Pashen, Neil Helberg, Tom Pitts, Brad Jones, Randy Kaiser, Robert Huit, Don Fulton, Bruce Price, Doug Erikson, Ken Henschel, Phil Kercher, Doug Sowers,Tom Pitts

Host: Robert Huit

Call to Order:
 The meeting was called to order 10:15 by President Brad Jones.

Approval of Minutes:
The minutes from the December 14th meeting were approved.

Topics:
1) SECRETARY/TREASURER REPORT: Randy Kaiser gave a Treasurer report.

2) NEWSLINE ARTICLES: Bill Bowden will submit an article for the 1st quarter and Randy Kaiser 2nd quarter.

3) ADVOCACY: The Washington State legislature has delegated the State Fire Marshalls Office to perform the hospital licensing life safety inspections which will be conducted at the same time as DOH survey. WSHA and WSSHE have been working with the State Fire Marshalls office to discuss ways to make these inspections more palatable and less intrusive to facilities.

WSSHE members have been working with DOH on amending the AIA healthcare construction guidelines to make acceptation to the requirement of single patient rooms for use of semi private based on certain facility needs.

Brad Jones has been working with Chad Beebe to see how he might be able to get DOH and DSHS more integrated in working with each other.

Brad Jones authored a letter on behalf of himself and WSSHE to the Regional Director of Washington State Department of Health and Social Services (DSHS) in an effort to integrate participation from DSHS in the WSSHE similar to that of the DOH/CRS The hope is to bring the regulating agencies to work more closely together on projects and facility related EOC matters.

4) ASHE NEWS: Phil spoke to the members about the ASHE rewards program and requirements for the different levels. WSSHE once again achieved the Gold level status for 2007. WSSHE goal is to someday achieve Platinum which is the highest level.WSSHE must have 50% of there membership as ASSHE members to achieve this. Currently WSSHE is at 39%.

5) BOARD REPORT: Brad and Phil and Tom Pitts updated members on recent board activities. They reported that there was a discussion about a possible increase in membership dues for 2009.The board discussed the need for password protection for WSSHE online roster. All members present felt that it is not necessary to have. Tom reported that the board recognized Greg Bergstrom for his stepping forward to fill the position of state treasurer after Dee Tiedemann had step down last fall and for his efforts in moving WSSHE forward to AMI Association Management Inc. which are now managing our finaces, website and other badly needed services for WSSHE.

6) UPCOMING EDUCATION/CONFERENCES:
April 23-25: Semi Annual Conference at Campbell’s resort Lake Chelan. "The Nuts and Bolts Approach to Healthcare Electrical Infrastructure: Electrical and Safety Emergency Power Reliability"

September 16-19: Annual Conference and Technical Exhibition Tradeshow;  The Coast Wenatchee Center Hotel, Wenatchee, WA.

Phil informed the members of the Northwest region 3 conference to be held in Spokane in 2010 which will include Washington., Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada.

7) WSSHE SCHOLARSHIP FUND: Brad announced that WSSHE will have five 750.00 scholarships available. Applications are on the WSSHE website and are due by August 15th.

8) NEW BUSINESS: Nominations were called for to fill the position of Eastern Chapter President Elect 2008 to be Chapter President 2009. Doug Sowers was nominated and seconded. Members present all vote in favor of Doug Sowers.

Phil informed the members about the upcoming changes and vote by members on the WSSHE bylaws changes.

9) QUESTIONS FROM CHUCK: Bruce asked if anyone was using records shredding service and what size containers they had on site and what size they had if any in there corridors. No larger than a 32 gallon container can be used for paper storage.
Bruce asked if anyone was using and recording a daily infection control log during construction or heavy maintenance.

10) EDUCATION TOPIC/SPEAKER: Speaker Ken Henschel of Extra Effort Consulting & Supply, LLC. Ken gave a very interesting and informative presentation on the latest lighting efficiency products and technologies for Hospital applications.

NEXT MEETING: June 6th, hosted by Dale Oakley at KADLEC MEDICAL CENTER Richland.

Meeting Adjournment:
Jones adjourned the meeting at 2:00pm.