Greenwood and Leflore County officials went behind closed doors with the Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board for nearly two hours Tuesday to discuss a commissioned report on the future of the hospital.
No action was taken, City Attorney Don Brock told The Taxpayers Channel after the meeting adjourned.
The report, prepared by Stroudwater Associates, had originally been scheduled to be presented in March, but it was delayed when the COVID-19 pandemic halted nonessential travel. During Tuesday’s meeting, representatives from Stroudwater made their presentation via a remote hookup.
Stroudwater, based in Portland, Maine, with offices in Nashville and Atlanta, was hired in 2019 to make recommendations about the best way to position the publicly owned hospital to respond to the changing face of health care and return the medical facility to profitability.
For the past several years, the Greenwood hospital has suffered multimillion-dollar annual losses.
Next week, the hospital should be releasing its financial statement for the first nine months of the current budget year. It’s expected to show the hospital operating in the black, but that’s mostly due to a $22.5 million infusion of federal coronavirus relief money
Options being considered for the hospital are selling or leasing it, affiliating with a larger medical institution or continuing to operate as an independent entity, but possibly with the goal of developing into a regional medical hub.
Robert Collins, president of the Leflore County Board of Supervisors, said the consultants presented information Tuesday on the various options but did not recommend a specific one.
He said he was not at liberty to further share what was discussed during the executive session.
He did say, however, that he would be willing to talk more once the board received a copy of Stroudwater’s report, which he expects to receive in a couple of weeks.
He said any paperwork distributed during Tuesday’s meeting was retrieved from the attendants before they departed.
“The public needs to know what’s going on at the hospital because it belongs to the public, it does not belong to me,” Collins said.
The hospital is jointly owned by Greenwood and Leflore County.
The Taxpayers Channel, which was the first to report on Tuesday’s meeting, said it has received no reply from the hospital to its request a copy of the report.
•Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
