The finalized request for a proposal regarding the possible sale or lease of Greenwood Leflore Hospital is nearing completion, according to a member of the steering committee that will review the document.
Alex Malouf, chairman of the hospital’s board, said Saturday that the request for a proposal (RFP) was “about 95 percent complete” and “should be ready by the end of next week or shortly thereafter.”
Malouf is on the steering committee along with Greenwood City Council President Ronnie Stevenson and Leflore County Board of Supervisors President Robert Collins.
The hospital is jointly owned by the city of Greenwood and Leflore County.
Currently, the proposal is being fine-tuned by the Horne Group of Ridgeland.
Initially, Malouf said, a 12-member committee was supposed to develop the outline of the RFP.
That committee contained two members of the hospital’s medical staff, two members of the hospital’s administration, two members of the hospital board, two members of the Board of Supervisors, two members of the City Council and two members from the community.
That committee, which met a day before the Sept. 13 public meeting, was to ensure key matters of importance to the hospital’s stakeholders were included in any RFP, Malouf said.
The Sept. 13 public hearing was intended to take suggestions from the community on what the RFP should contain, he said. Instead, he said, the public hearing got “sidetracked” into a discussion on whether the hospital should be sold. He said the fine points of the request for a proposal were lost as the overwhelming public reaction that night was simply against selling the hospital.
Malouf said the process to consider a request for a proposal has already been approved by both the supervisors and the council.
Once the RFP is completed, it will be submitted to the steering committee, he said.
“We want to make sure all the wishes of the board and council are met. ...We would at least like to read it to make sure everything is in it,” he said.
Malouf said items such as physician contracts and the funding of the hospital’s retirement plan, as it exists currently, would have to be included in any RFP.
Once the RFP is in writing, he said, most of the concerns will be able to be addressed long before any offers on the hospital are accepted.
Collins said the board and the council will make the ultimate decision on whether to advertise the RFP.
Stevenson said no action has been taken on the possible sale of the hospital, adding that the effort is far from over.
“This is going to be a slow process,” he said.
