WARREN, Ark. (8/28/25) – The Bradley County Medical Center Board of Directors held its monthly meeting on Thursday, Aug. 28 inside the conference room at the hospital with financial reports, executive updates, and policy approvals among the items discussed.
The meeting began with the minutes from the July meeting approved unanimously followed by Controller Matt Pace’s financial report. Pace noted that visits at the BCMC Rural Health Clinic were up, and the clinic recorded a profit of $3,354.01. The gross patient revenue for July came in at $3,581,701, while the net operating revenue was $2,094,698. The hospital registered a net income of $264,307 and the sales tax collected was $107,601.72 to put the sales tax fund at $5,439,844.84.
CEO/CFO Leslie Huitt spoke first about Dr. Russell Gregory, the newest doctor at the BCMC Rural Health Clinic that started on Aug. 4. Huitt said he saw seven patients on his first day and is encouraged that most of his patients are new patients. He also spoke to the Rotary Club of Warren and plans to have another open house soon, with this one scheduled to allow people to attend after work. He has worked an ER shift already and plans to be at the BCEDC and Hermitage Fall Festival.
Huitt continued by informing the board that BCMC was the first hospital in the state to have a diagnostic mammogram read through teleradiology with RAPA. A recent change in law now allows radiologists to read diagnostic mammograms and breast ultrasounds through telemedicine opposed to being on-site. This means those tests will be able to be read more often at BCMC. She also was relieved to announce BCMC has qualified and received the remainder of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
The next subject was the recent completion of the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) that is conducted every three years. The goal was 150 surveys, but BCMC exceeded that with 227 and the steering committee met Wednesday, Aug. 27 to review the results. The areas of focus that came out of this were education, which includes education on chronic diseases along with resources available in the area, and more access to specialists. There will be a formal plan developed to address these issues.
She let the board know a new cardiologist, Dr. Michael Cross with Arkansas Cardiology, has plans to start a clinic at BCMC with more details to come on a start date. Huitt concluded by touching on the end of the fiscal year coming up on Sept. 30, so budget and inventory are at the forefront. She briefly touched on the volumes and said July was trending upward after a bit of a lull to begin the summer.
Chief Nursing Officer Jamie Wolfe gave a brief update on COVID-19 with a few cases that have come through the hospital, including some staff. Flu shots will be administered sometime in October for staff. He notified the board of a new purchase through grant funds called DAX Copilot. It is an AI-powered, voice-enabled solution that automatically documents patient encounters accurately. There will be licenses for all of the physicians at the BCMC Rural Health Clinic and one for staff at the hospital with the grant covering the cost of three years for the service. It will be integrated to work seamlessly inside MEDITECH, the hospital’s EHR system, before the year is over.
Wolfe continued by recognizing the Emergency Department and manager Paige Stell. They are consistently meeting and exceeding the expectations set forth in the IDHI Stroke Program through UAMS. Additionally, Clinical Nurse Educator Krissy Morrison will begin NARCAN training at the hospital soon. He finished his portion with an update on the Senior Care Department. They are seeing more social issues leading to longer lengths of stay. This affects the hospital’s reimbursement.
Chief Operating Officer Leeanna Williams rounded out the executive updates. She updated the board on how things were going in regard to last year’s Arkansas Department of Health survey and said the Maintenance team was working very hard on it. The service line of cardiopulmonary rehab will undergo training in October with a tentative start date of Nov. 3. They are planning on a marketing push that includes Respiratory Therapy manager Sharee Williams speaking at Rotary and Med-Staff along with flyers, social media, and advertising. To conclude, she touched on how impressive Dr. Gregory was when he spoke at Rotary.
Nursing, Swing Bed, and Employee Health policy manuals were up for annual approval. The board approved all three unanimously. Next, there were six individual policies subject to board approval. The first four were lab policies for Critical Values, Record Retrieval, Lab Tests Resulted After Discharge, and Cybersecurity. The final two were surgery policies concerning the LUCAS Chest Compression Machine and Reclast Infusion. All six were approved collectively.
Huitt spoke to the board briefly about a recent conference her and Williams attended which went over some of the effects of the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” with the cuts to Medicaid. She said the ER is already seeing an increase in self-pay and should see more as more people become uninsured. There was $50 billion set aside for the Rural Health Transformation Program, with half being distributed equally among states with an approved application. The federal government will determine where the other half of the funds are distributed. There is no indication how those funds will be dispersed yet. They also talked about Medicare Advantage plans are out of control in denying claims, but it’s frustrating because there is little being done about it.
Medical staff recommendations were approved by the board unanimously before an executive session.
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