While Oktibbeha County supervisors and OCH Regional Medical Center trustees debated the need for a strategic financial assessment of the county-owned hospital Tuesday, both sides agreed the issue of whether or not to sell the facility needs to be settled for good soon.
With consultant Frederick Woodrell in tow, District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer pushed for OCH’s cooperation with a possible financial analysis, the first step required by state law before a county or municipality can explore selling a government-owned hospital.
Tense debate between Trainer, hospital trustees and OCH Chief Executive Officer Richard Hilton filled most of the hour-long meeting, with hospital representatives questioning Trainer’s motives, vouching for their own yearly audits and saying continued uncertainty of the hospital’s future affects recruitment and retention efforts for medical staff.
“I have seven bosses. They can tell you that for the past four years – ever since (a possible transaction) first came up – I have said I’m not afraid of what a strategic assessment will show for this facility,” Hilton said. “Year after year, there does not need to be this continuous thing of whether we’re going to sell or lease the hospital. That decision, at some point in time, has got to come to a close.”
A discussion with supervisors was added to the OCH board’s May meeting after county leaders called for talks this spring. No decision was made on an analysis Tuesday, as the meeting between the two boards was simply to open the lines of communication.
Supervisors are not scheduled to meet again until next month. Trainer didn’t say if he would make a motion to approve an analysis on June 6 but did say Woodrell is expected to give a presentation on the board’s possible paths forward.
“Hopefully by then it will be time to move forward,” Trainer said.
If an analysis recommends that supervisors sell or lease OCH to an outside for- or non-profit entity, traction could build for the county to issue a request for proposals. Such a request, Trainer said, would “be aggressive,” and the county won’t “just choose the first one that comes along.”
A voter petition could force a pending transaction to the ballot box. A signature-gathering initiative was begun last term by former Starkville Alderman Frank Davis ahead of a supervisors voting on performing an analysis.
“In the end and after ever everything is said and done … if the supervisors don’t call for a referendum, I almost would be willing to guarantee there’s a man sitting right over there that’s going to get the signatures to call for it,” Hilton said while pointing at Davis. “The big (stakeholder) is the community, because they will be the ones that control what happens to this hospital.”
“That’s not a problem,” Trainer countered. “We want to do this in a way it will help our community. We’re not trying to hide anything.”
Tuesday’s meeting was the first such gathering between the groups since voters passed a hospital improvement bond in 2008. In the last four years, Trainer has led a charge to analyze the hospital’s finances after numerous organizations approached him about its availability in a potential transaction.
Whether or not a majority of supervisors have the appetite to pursue a sale or lease in the future is unknown, but both sides agreed they have to work together and the on-again, off-again nature of a possible deal must be settled for stability’s sake.
Trainer said it would be irresponsible for the county not to look at its options as the economics of health care continue to evolve. When pushed for other reasons for analyzing OCH’s bottom line, Trainer said he wanted a hospital that can operate “with very little tax support,” since overall financial restrictions keep supervisors from paving roads, improving infrastructure and providing other services.
“You have to look at it from … a supervisor’s standpoint,” he said. “You have some (hospitals) that have some level of county support, but most of them that are doing well … they have no tax support. They’re able to do things we can’t do here.”
OCH Trustee Jimmy Linley said he was disappointed in Trainer’s stance and took issue with his unfilled appointment to the hospital board.
Trainer previously took heat from fellow supervisors over delaying the action for over a year and said Tuesday he didn’t want to subject an appointee to the pressures of “the hospital machine” since supervisors could soon move forward with an analysis.
In a 3-2 vote, supervisors hired Woodrell last week to advise the county as it approaches an OCH analysis. Woodrell, the former chief executive officer of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s hospitals and clinics, will receive $10,000 for his services, which includes helping select a firm for the study once it is authorized.
While District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery and District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller both said they would wait for the facts to emerge about the hospital before making any decision on its future, Montgomery stressed the need for all parties “to remain civil” if the process continues.
District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard, however, said hiring Woodrell ahead of authorizing an analysis and meeting with trustees makes it appear the board selected “a hired gun.”
“I don’t think that’s the right way to do it. I think you should be man enough to come sit down and look at the men and women in the eye and tell them what you want to do,” Howard said.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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