Members of the Drew Memorial Health System Board along with several members of the Drew County Quorum Court attended the regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday, March 27.
The meeting opened with Chairman Mike Akin addressing the crowd and stating that everyone was aware of the current financial situation of the hospital and that the facility is “bleeding cash.”
Akin stated that billing was a problem and the board has listened and entertained many options regarding the future of the hospital.
Representatives from Baptist Health that were present at the January and February meeting were not present at the March hospital board meeting. Akin stated that Baptist is interested in a partnership or alliance with our hospital and they understand they will have to inject nine to 10 million dollars in capitol in the beginning.
Baptist has requested that the administration find out what it will cost to get out of a current contract with an electronic medical records company and, that the current hospital board be supportive of “an additional sales tax in Drew County, on terms and conditions to be determined.”
A resolution from the board of directors on hospital letter head was presented stating that the sitting board would support a sales tax “to ensure the continued provision of high quality hospital services in Monticello”.
A vote came to the floor and board members Mike Akin, Carl Lucky, Wayne Owen, and Josh McKeiver voted in the affirmative. Robin McClendon voted no. Jay Jones and Lagarian Cross were not in attendance.
Akin stressed to the crowd that Baptist has no intention to change something that is working efficiently at this hospital.
“They are not sending in doctors from Little Rock or opening up their own clinic,” Akin added. “They will work with the outsourced physicians we already have in place.”
Akin also emphasized that if a sales tax was passed by the voters, the money would stay local and would benefit the hospital in Drew County.
One of the options being entertained by the board is a long term lease of the building(s) to Baptist where any new equipment needed at the hospital would be purchased by Baptist but owned by the county hospital.
Akin went on to state that Drew Memorial is not a critical access hospital like many of the smaller hospitals in Southeast Arkansas.
Ron Echols spoke as a member of the public. He shared his feelings as a lifelong resident of Drew County and said, “Drew Memorial has been offered a lifeline.”
Echols also added, “I think all of us want a properly functioning hospital, a hospital of excellence to serve Drew County.”
Echols further stressed that Drew County will not be losing anything, the county will still own the hospital, and this partnership would be more like having a management firm run our hospital. Echols said he was one member of the public who endorses this deal.
Chief Financial Officer, Melodie Colwell, gave the financial report for February, which states that the hospital has 15.64 Days Cash on Hand. Colwell added that the hospital sustained of loss of $930,000 last month. She said that a significant portion of this loss comes from payroll costs associated with the in house contracts the hospital has. Another area where the budget was exceeded was in the surgical center where one of the surgeon’s salary was more than the budget showed.
Colwell also noted that utilities were over budget due to several factors, the first being that the hospital received bills for two separate months at the same time. The second issue was that the cost of utilities has increased significantly recently.
Chief Executive Officer, Scott Barrilleaux, gave his CEO’s report to the board. Barrilleaux discussed the new robotic technology that the hospital has acquired for knee replacement surgeries. The hospital has leased the equipment, and Barrilleaux said that to break even the hospital would need to perform two knee replacements per month.
“The good news,” Barrilleaux stated, “we have had three knee replacement procedures today.”
Barrilleaux also shared, that for the first time, Drew Health Systems would be able to offer services provided by an Otorhinolaryngologist, include ear tympanostomy tube procedures and tonsillectomies. He added that there are two tympanostomy tube procedures scheduled for Tuesday, March 28.
Barrilleaux noted, “This is some good news, some refreshing news.”
Barrilleaux informed the board that he and Mike Akin had to take a call at 2 p.m. to speak with a representative from the governor’s office, along with representatives from other agencies regarding the funds requested through the American Rescue Plan (ARPA). He stated that he had been advised to only request enough funds to sustain operations until a potential deal with Baptist could be reached. Barrilleaux added to meet this request, he has asked for $6.7 million.
When asked what would happen if the deal with Baptist fell through, or took longer than necessary, Barrilleaux said he hoped that they wouldn’t have blown through the $6.7 million.
Barrilleaux added, “If that were to happen, we would probably have to get really Draconian in some areas.” He further noted, “In other words, we would probably be forced to make a lot of workforce reductions is where I’m going.”
The board then contacted Healthcare Resource Group who has been handling certain billing and collections tasks for the hospital. There was a general consensus between the board and administration present that no one was happy with the services HRG has been providing. The board asked Colwell if there was a way out of their agreement with HRG, and she stated that there was but she would have to see how much notice they had to provide. Colwell noted that there is an employee in house who is trained and willing to provide in house billing and coding. The board suggested letting this employee handle these duties and not pay HRG for these services. Colwell said that making this change could save the hospital $35,000 annually.
In a phone interview with the Advance on Tuesday morning, Akin said that during the phone call with Barrilleaux, the Governor’s office and other state agencies, additional information was requested from the hospital and Akin said they were working on submitting the newly requested information as soon as possible. No monies have been awarded at the time of publication.
