Powell Valley Healthcare staff and board members want to do more bragging — about the good work of providers, medical and non-medical staff, and everyone else who contributes to the hospital.

At an unusually lengthy board meeting Monday night, board members and staff discussed how to counteract opinions in the community claiming the hospital’s procedures are more expensive or they don’t provide the many services they do.

They also determined to start recognizing departments throughout the hospital for their good work.

New board member Shelley Hill jump-started a conversation saying she wants to be able to tell people who ask her at work about hospital issues why staying local is the best decision. She said a number of people she has talked to think Cody has cheaper procedures than Powell.

“I don’t know enough to say how are we fixing this,” she said. “I don’t want to see this go down, I think its an amazing place. I want Powell people to know what a blessing this place is.”

Chief Financial Officer Joy Coulston said while Powell gives Good Faith Estimates for procedures that include all costs, some area hospitals leave out costs such as professional services.

Fellow new board member Joni Bennett said she had a recent ER experience where the staff was great and did what they could to help her quickly and relatively painlessly.

“The ER was absolutely great,” she said. “I think its experience, service over cost too. It comes down to the overall experience. You get bill, say why is it so expensive? It’s the overall experience, we can do better to say ... come to us, we will be better.”

To that end, CEO Terry Odom noted PVHC provider Dr. Carletta Collins had shared her experience using the Tyrer Cuzick scoring program for breast cancer patients after Cody Regional Health had advertised their providers using it.

“We’ve got to brag,” board chair R.J. Kost said. “We’ve got to talk about how good we really are.”

Kost also raised the idea of having the board thank certain departments each month for their service. Other board members took that idea and expanded on it, to where the hospital will now be looking into honoring a department each month via multiple channels, from inviting members to board meetings to highlight them to taking out ads in the paper.

“I think public recognition goes a long way,” said board member Bonnie Katz.