Saint Thomas Health today (Thursday) announced executive leadership changes at Saint Thomas DeKalb, Highlands and Stones River Hospitals. The newly structured hospital leadership teams will be comprised of a chief administrative officer and director of nursing. Saint Thomas Health is part of Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and nonprofit health system.

At Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital, Brad Mullinax will serve as the new chief administrative officer. Previously, Mullinax served as the director of clinical operations at Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital. Mullinax will be supported by Emily Elrod, who has been appointed as the director of nursing at both Saint Thomas Stones River and DeKalb Hospitals. Previously, Elrod served as director of clinical operations at Saint Thomas Stones River Hospital.

In support of Saint Thomas Health’s mission and strategic direction, the leadership team continues to look for the best ways to provide affordable, safe, and quality and accessible care to all, with special attention to those most vulnerable.

“Our leadership structures will continue to develop to support the goals of our strategic direction, and these changes include elevating and promoting Saint Thomas Health associates to help sustain our hospitals in the future,” said Gordon Ferguson, president and CEO of Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital and president of Saint Thomas regional hospitals. “As we continue to make our care delivery operations more efficient, we have made the decision to form separate leadership teams for Saint Thomas DeKalb, Highlands and Stones River Hospitals, allowing for a focus on growth, quality and operational excellence at each hospital.”

At Saint Thomas Highlands Hospital, Richard Tumlin will serve as the interim chief administrative officer. Tumlin was most recently the chief operating officer at Southern Hills Hospital in Nashville where he worked since 2011. Tumlin graduated from both the University of Georgia and Georgia State University and currently lives in Brentwood, Tenn. In addition, Jennifer Halfacre will serve as interim director of nursing at Saint Thomas Highlands Hospital, and she will be supported by Bob Peglow, chief nursing officer for the Saint Thomas Health regional hospitals. Halfacre will continue her current responsibilities for surgical services at the hospital.

At Saint Thomas Stones River Hospital, Brian Gill has been named chief administrative officer. Gill has been extremely involved with the behavioral health services provided at several Saint Thomas hospitals, and he will continue to support the behavioral health services provided at Saint Thomas regional hospitals.

As a result of these changes in the executive leadership structure, Andy Wachtel will be transitioning from his role as president and CEO for these three regional hospitals. Additionally, the clinical operations position has been eliminated at each of these hospitals.

“With the ever-changing landscape in healthcare, we must continue to evolve to meet the needs of our communities, and the new executive leadership structure will allow us to have a strong leadership presence at each hospital every day,” said Ferguson. “Times of change can be difficult, but we remain committed to the continued service of each of these regional hospitals.”

ABOUT SAINT THOMAS HEALTH

In Tennessee, Ascension’s Saint Thomas Health operates nine hospitals in addition to a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures, medical practices, clinics and rehabilitation facilities that cover a 68-county area and employ more than 8,000 associates. Across the state, Saint Thomas Health provided more than $92 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2017. Serving Tennessee for 15 years, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension is the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system, operating more than 2,600 sites of care – including 151 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities – in 22 states and the District of Columbia. Visit www.sthealth.com.

The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 11-6 is offering a one-day boating safety class on Saturday, June 2 at the Dekalb County Community Center located at 712 South Congress Boulevard in Smithville, Tennessee from 8:00 AM – 4:00PM. The class is taught free but $7.00 fee per student covers lunch and room rental fees. Preregistration is required as the class size is limited. For more information and/or to register, please call John Whelan at 615-948-8051 and leave a message.

BOAT TENNESSEE is a comprehensive boating course designed for both beginners and novice boaters. This course will be taught in a one-day
session with a short lunch break. Topics include: Types and Uses of Boats/Engines; Boat Handling; Equipment for Boats, Trailering, Aids to
Navigation, Rules of the Road, Inland Boating, Boating Laws/State Laws, Boating Problems/Emergencies, and more. The exam to be given
will be the State of Tennessee boating exam.

This course is approved by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators. Those who successfully complete the course and
exam are awarded certificates of completion. Many marine insurance companies offer discounts on boat insurance to those who complete this
course.

If the student taking this course and exam was born after January 1, 1989, then the student MUST also pre-register with the State of
Tennessee to take the boating exam and pay an additional fee of $10 per person to the State. The exam ticket is Type 600 and can be
obtained from any TWRA fishing/hunting licensing agent. Proof of identity of student may be required. Students are also strongly
encouraged to obtain their textbooks in advance for reading and studying.

The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, created by an Act of Congress in 1939, is the uniformed civilian component of the U.S. Coast Guard and
supports the Coast Guard across all mission areas. For more information on the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a flotilla near you,
visit www.cgaux.org

A total of $60,777 in local option sales tax funds is being shifted from the cities of Smithville, Liberty, and Dowelltown to the county due to state sales tax reporting errors that were discovered in a review by the Barrett Group of Murfreesboro, who was contracted by the county commission last fall to conduct the study.

During Tuesday night’s county commission meeting, County Mayor Tim Stribling said this money was always due the county instead of the cities but mistakes were made in the reporting of sales tax proceeds from businesses located near the city limits of those three towns.

The portions being taken from the cities and being sent to the county for the last 12 months is $60,568 from Smithville, $199 from Dowelltown, and $9.84 from Liberty. None were found in Alexandria.

“It was not due to any fault of the city or county it was just whoever was reporting their sales tax. It won’t change anything as far as dollar amounts they are reporting but they will now report their portion to the county instead of the city,” said County Mayor Stribling.

City Administrator Hunter Hendrixson made the Smithville Mayor and Aldermen aware of the finding during the May 7 city council meeting.

The review was authorized by the county commission last October when it entered into a Revenue Enhancement Consulting Agreement with the Barrett Group of Murfreesboro.

During a prior workshop, Donna Barrett of the Barrett Group addressed the county commission to explain the proposal.

Under the agreement, the Barrett Group was to conduct a review to make sure the county is getting all the revenues it is due from various state taxes that local businesses pay including sales tax, Hall income tax, beer and liquor tax, excise tax, etc.

For example, if a municipality within the county is found from this review to be erroneously receiving any tax revenues from businesses outside of the municipality, then the mistake will be corrected and the tax money will be re-directed to the county.

The Barrett Group is to receive 50% of any extra revenues generated to the county from this review only for the first year. After the first year, no further fees will be paid to Barrett. Had the review turned up no mistakes, the county would not have owed Barrett anything.

In other business, the commission tabled action on a request by the Board of Education for approval of a budget amendment to receive funds from a U-trust mini-grant in the amount of $15,500.

Grant funds are to be used by the school district as follows:
$5,000 for an End of the Year Celebration
$1,000 for Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week
$7,500 for Monthly Teacher/Staff Morale activities
$1,000 for Teacher of the Year Banquet
$1,000 for Board members Meet and Greet/Open House

Seventh District Commissioner Larry Summers requested that action on this budget amendment be tabled until school administrators address the commission on why the grant funds are being used in this manner.

“We hear all the time teachers need materials to teach. Why are we throwing $15,500 out when it looks like to me it would go a whole lot better for teacher materials? I understand grants but why is there even this category at a time when they’re wanting teacher pay raises and to build new schools and when teachers are constantly having to reach into their own pockets to buy materials? Can any of this money be diverted”, asked Summers?

“Again I understand grants are very specific and it will probably fall under the category of if we don’t use it somebody else will but I would like to ask questions and table this until next month,” added Summers.

On another matter, the commission adopted a budget amendment in the amount of $120,500 by a 12-2 vote that was previously tabled which would allow the Board of Education to use unexpected new funds from the state for the purpose of helping cover the district’s health insurance costs.

Last fall, the Board of Education voted to add another $50 per month to each teacher who has health insurance through the school system to help ease their burden of soaring out of pocket costs.

A few county commissioners felt that the school board should divide this extra money from the state and give it to teachers to further help them with their out of pocket expense for health insurance.

However, Fifth district commissioner Anita Puckett said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps informed her that this new money from the state is a one-time allocation and non-recurring and it could not be spent directly on teachers in this manner.

In a letter to County Mayor Stribling, Director Cripps wrote that “this money was sent for an increase in the insurance. This money was based on the amount of people who left the limited plan to go to a higher cost plan. This was money that was sent to help school districts pay for the cost difference we incurred between the limited and higher cost plan,” wrote Cripps.

In his monthly sales tax report, County Mayor Stribling said local option sales tax for the month of April for DeKalb County was $64, 017. The net collections for the month of April for DeKalb County was $357,369 which is up over collections for April, 2017 which was $342, 329.