The Greater Starkville Development Board of Trustees issued a letter to Oktibbeha County supervisors Tuesday calling for an end to discussions on a potential sale or lease of OCH Regional Medical Center.
The letter comes after GSDP board members discussed consultant Stroudwater and Associates’ recent hospital analysis with OCH Chief Executive Officer Richard Hilton and District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer. Both Hilton and Trainer are members of the GSDP Board of Trustees, and Hilton is a past board chairman.
“The ongoing discussion regarding our medical center has created instability in our hospital system and needs to be put to rest for the immediate future,” the letter, signed by board Chairman Michelle Amos and Vice Chairman Jerry Toney, reads.
The Partnership board’s response to Stroudwater’s recent OCH analysis reinforces an argument Hilton used at the last public hearing to refute the health care consultant’s recommendation that supervisors seek proposals for the publicly owned facility: the Tennessee-based firm did not use generally accepted accounting procedures in its determination that OCH has an annual $3 million to $4 million gap between current operating results and the needed levels of performance before strategic capital investments are considered.
Hilton previously accused Stroudwater of understating OCH’s income and overstating its expenses, “which affected our operating margin percentage.” Stroudwater representatives, however, said OCH’s short-term trend of expenses outpacing revenues must be dealt with to guarantee the hospital’s long-term viability through investments.
“The Stroudwater report may be in compliance with statute, but there is no justification for failure to follow standard accounting procedures. Without an accurate financial accounting, any decision based on that accounting is flawed. They also admitted to using ‘old data,’ which also leads to inaccurate reporting,” the Partnership board’s letter continues.
It then asks supervisors to follow the OCH Board of Trustee’s recommendation that the county cease any further talks or speculation about a potential transaction. Additionally, the letter notes 90 percent of hospital physicians oppose a sale or lease of the publicly owned facility.
“(Hospital trustees) are the individuals entrusted with the operation and well-being of our community asset. The total disregard of their recommendation is of great concern,” the letter states. “(Physicians understand) health care better than anyone involved. Their endorsement of the current administration and opposition to outside ownership should carry great weight.”
Supervisors are expected to continue discussing OCH’s future at their next board meeting, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. Jan. 3. In their last meeting, Trainer urged his fellow board members to consider seeking outside legal counsel for advice as the county broaches a possible transaction in 2017.
That recommendation came from Ted Woodrell, who was hired to advise supervisors on the hospital analysis and transaction process earlier in 2016. Woodrell recommended the board hire Butler Snow as its legal consultant.
Woodrell also suggested supervisors allow Oktibbeha County voters to decide a potential transaction.
Hospital supporters have launched a signature-gathering campaign to force a potential deal to the ballot box. Approximately 1,500 signatures from qualified Oktibbeha County voters are needed to force a referendum.
Woodrell previously compared the Stroudwater report and OCH’s 75-page response, noting that the differences between the documents are due to each group’s methodology for producing their analysis.
“The analysis provided by the hospital was generally an introspective/operational focus versus Stroudwater’s analysis, which was generally an external/market focus,” he wrote in a letter to supervisors. “Using these two different approaches, the numbers are not going to match, nor should they.”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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