Greenwood Leflore Hospital has been approved to receive $3 million by the Leflore County Board of Supervisors after being initially denied drawing $1 million in payroll costs from their $10 million line of credit.
The board issued a unanimous vote in approval of giving the struggling Delta hospital the money during Monday night’s meeting despite some supervisors previously voting against allocating funding on September 13.
Several board members pointed out what they consider a lack of planning from GLH officials during the last meeting, attributing their decision to deny the funding to a recent hospital summit that went mostly unattended.
“They don’t have no other plan,” Supervisor Robert Collins stated. “They are not willing to sit down and discuss another plan. We invited everybody to a meeting, but only [one person] showed up.”
Members also referenced how GLH’s request to receive critical access hospital status was rejected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s (CMS) regional office in Atlanta that same day.
While the national CMS office in Washington, D.C. could still override the decision – which would open GLH up to a significant amount of federal funding – the hospital has been initially rejected due to its proximity to South Sunflower County Medical Center.
In order to qualify, Greenwood Leflore must be 35 miles away from the next-closest hospital. South Sunflower in Indianola is currently 28 miles from GLH, making it more difficult for the struggling hospital to receive critical hospital access designation.
Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams has told SuperTalk Mississippi News that the hospital is currently looking to lease out the facility in case GLH does not attain critical hospital access status.
“It’s just a plan B or a backup in case we are not approved for the critical care facility status,” McAdams said. “We can’t not have another plan in our basket.”
Interim CEO Gary Marchand has since released that the hospital is losing approximately $1 million a month while it waits for the CMS’s approval. In all, it costs $2 million to pay all 600 employees at GLH each month.
At this time, Marchand expects the funding to be able to cover the hospital’s monthly payrolls for the remainder of the year or until GLH receives critical hospital access designation.
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