In a day or two I will regroup and try to be positive about the possibilities of saving Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
But right now I’m sick over the news that the University of Mississippi Medical Center has decided that taking over our hospital is not such a good idea after all.
Until Friday, I had discounted all the skeptics, even concluding that state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney was misinformed in his pronouncement that the lease with UMMC was improbable.
I’m not the only one feeling this way either. Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams was so confident that the last hurdles had been overcome that she shared in a TV interview, shortly before UMMC’s bombshell, that she was confident the long-term lease was a go.
She had good reason to think so. She had gotten a report less than three days earlier, following a meeting between Greenwood Leflore Hospital and UMMC officials, that the deal was looking very good.
It would be nice to know what changed in the meantime.
I don’t know what our side could have done differently. You may question the wisdom of every cutback made in recent months, but all of them were done with the expectation that UMMC would wind up taking over the operation of the hospital.
Sure, we were all but begging. It had become obvious at least a year ago that Greenwood Leflore Hospital was not likely to survive as a stand-alone hospital. But UMMC saw something in the arrangement, too, that would benefit its expanding footprint.
It began informal talks with Greenwood hospital officials even before the hospital went through the statutory steps of advertising for lease proposals. UMMC solidified its interest in August when it became the only medical institution to put in a bid.
More than two months of constant negotiations followed. I’m not privy to all of the sticking points, but when it came down to two major ones at the end, this community did not balk in agreeing to what UMMC wanted.
UMMC demanded some capital improvements that had been put off because of the hospital’s financial straits, and it wanted to be assured that it would not be stuck with the outstanding balance on a loan the hospital had received from the federal Medicare program. The requests were reasonable, and in a matter of days last week, Greenwood and Leflore County officials agreed to come up with the money, about $9 million between them, even if that meant having to raise taxes to do it. I’m not sure what else could have been expected from them. Or how the Greenwood hospital could have been more accommodating to its potential partner, including turning over to UMMC a couple of desirable outpatient clinics even while negotiations over the hospital were still ongoing.
When you are hit in the gut with news like this, your inclination is to point fingers.
I’m going to take on faith, though, that UMMC was not just playing along, that it really wanted to help save our hospital, although it was possibly going to be with fewer services than that to which
Greenwood had become accustomed.
The only inkling I had that UMMC might be having second thoughts was its insistence, starting toward the end of October, that there was no way to get everything in order to put it before the state College Board sooner than January. I couldn’t understand why UMMC, knowing that the Greenwood hospital was on the verge of insolvency, did not show a greater sense of urgency to get the paperwork done and approved earlier than that. No matter how complicated hospital lease documents are, they can’t be that complicated that it takes two months to have them ready after all the major terms have been settled.
There is obviously more to UMMC’s backing off then we know, but as the adage goes, “There’s no use crying over spilled milk.”
Nor is there time.
Even with the latest round of job cuts announced on Friday, the Greenwood hospital may not have enough cash to last past December.
If it has to close, it will be hell trying to get it back open. It’s my understanding that once a hospital closes for anything but a short-term disaster, it loses its certificate of need. Having to get a new one issued by the state would be a regulatory nightmare that could drag on for months. And that doesn’t take into account having to restock what would most likely be a severely depleted medical staff.
At this late juncture, the only possibility — if there is one — is to figure out a way to keep operating the hospital independently. That probably means more cutbacks in services and a taxpayer-funded infusion from the city and county, but at least it would keep the doors open until another long-term solution could be found.
This is a crisis crying for an answer.
We thought we had one. Now we don’t. The future of this community hinges on finding another one, and fast.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
