Zolman retires from Quincy hospital commission after 20 years

QUINCY — Randy Zolman said he didn’t know much about the job when he joined the Quincy Valley Medical Center commission in 2005.

“I had no idea,” he said. “I thought it would be interesting.”

Zolman resigned earlier this month after 20 years as a QVMC commissioner; his term would have ended in December. Ronald Huxtable is running unopposed for the position and was appointed to the QVMC commission at its Sept. 22 meeting.

Now retired from practice, Zolman was operating his chiropractic clinic in 2005 and said that experience was very valuable when it came to the hospital commission. Quincy Valley Medical Center was having some tough times in 2005 and finding out why was one of the reasons he decided to join the commission, he said. He found out how tough the times were at his first meeting.

“That was the August meeting,” he said. “In that meeting, we were talking about closing the entire facility in January (2006),” he said.

Quincy hospital still has debt associated with the new hospital that opened in May. But it has paid off all debt that’s not associated with the hospital construction, Zolman said.

He gave the credit to the current Chief Executive Officer, Glenda Bishop.

“Glenda was the catalyst,” he said.

The commission – himself included – didn’t have that much to do with getting out of debt, he said, except for hiring talented people and putting them in the right jobs. It was also important for the board to avoid micromanaging.

“And that was hard,” he said.

Getting the hospital to financial health also required some difficult decisions, he said. Physicians left; so did administrators.

Hospital officials looked for other sources of revenue, which helped for a few years, Zolman said. But QVMC needed to make substantial changes to its financial practices and revise the way hospital officials kept track of expenses, he said. Those helped QVMC improve its financial picture, he said.

Along with hospitals nationwide, QVMC received a financial infusion during the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving about $3 million in federal aid. That helped, Zolman said, but commissioners tried to avoid using it for operations.

“That (money) sat in there. We just worked off our own money,” he said.

Hospital district patrons approved a proposal for a $55 million bond in 2022 to pay for the construction of the new QVMC. Commissioners set the goal of having all non-construction-related debt paid off by the time the new hospital opened, Zolman said. That included a $1 million loan that dated to about 2001.

Commissioners asked administrators and staff to have the debt paid by the time the new hospital opened, Zolman said.

“They turned around and did it in nine months,” Zolman said. “They paid everything off.”

Finances will always be a challenge for QVMC, Zolman said, due in part to its status as a Critical Access hospital. Facilities designated as Critical Access are subject to regulations on how much money they can earn, and how they are reimbursed for patients on public insurance.

“It’s a juggling game,” Zolman said.

Quincy hospital is ending each month with some money – maybe not a lot, Zolman said, but something.

“It could be $10,000 (or) $15,000, but it’s in the black,” he said.

    Ronald Huxtable was appointed to the Quincy Valley Medical Center commission Sept. 22.