JOINT VENTURE SUMMARY
MOUNT CARMEL & OHIOHEALTH
June 2003

COMTEX
Central Ohio Medical Textiles

Land & Buildings

Construction has indeed begun at the COMTEX site. At the point of writing this update, the trenching for the foundation footers had been completed, and concrete footers had been poured on the western wall of the building. In addition, internal trenching for the plumbing and waste water is underway. The steel for the pre-engineered building has arrived and is being stored on-site, and the utilities for gas, electric, and water are also under construction.

The final Gross Maximum Price (GMP) for the project has now been set at a figure that is approximately $650,000 under budget. What remains now is to complete the construction as planned on-time and under budget.

The pictures below show the construction activity at the COMTEX site on May 21st.

Click Images to Enlarge

Equipment

The Board approved the purchase of an additional 150 delivery carts for COMTEX at the last meeting. The acquisition brings the total number of Ebco Industries reversible linen carts to 1,200. This number of carts will greatly improve COMTEX's ability to provide high quality services to its customers.

Myles Noel, COO, and Amy King, Executive Assistant with the enlisted help of others from Mount Carmel and OhioHealth, like Becky Davis and the COMTEX Customer Committee are reviewing office infrastructure systems. Under analysis at the present time, are such systems as the computer server and desktop units, the providers for website systems and the plant devices, such as the time clock and security systems.

Budgeting & Finance

COMTEX has begun to spend its capital at an increased rate, with the second Jensen-USA installment for the equipment, being issued on May 23rd. COMTEX anticipates spending approximately one million dollars per month over the next several months.

The entire COMTEX project when complete will include member's start-up contributions of $1,500,000 and financing of $14,085,000 for a total capital investment of $15,585,000.

Staffing

The Human Resource Committee met on Wednesday, May 28th to review the list of benefits provided by both Mount Carmel and OhioHealth for the impacted staff, and to design the framework for the benefit plan for COMTEX. Since COMTEX is not 100% owned by either of the members and since it will pay its salaries and wages from revenue earned through operations it does not qualify to fall under either the Mount Carmel or OhioHealth benefit plans.

COMTEX hopes to be in a position to tender for employee benefits during the summer months and to provide the Board with a recommendation at its September meeting. In addition, the Human Resources Committee will be presenting their recommendations for key cost items including staff salary grids, premium pay amounts, and overtime rates. Once these final two elements are confirmed, a revised COMTEX operating budget will then be prepared for Board approval in the first quarter of 2004.

In a global sense the milestones for COMTEX along with progress towards completion of these key points are as follows: