WARREN, Ark. (4/23/26) – The Bradley County Medical Center Board of Directors held its April meeting on Thursday, April 23 inside the hospital’s conference room with an audit presentation, financial reports, executive updates, and policy approvals among the items reviewed.
The meeting began with an audit presentation by Nick Scott and Wes Thew of Wipfli. Their report included an audit of the previous fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2025. There were comparisons between BCMC and benchmarks from other Critical-Access Hospitals in Arkansas and the region. It also included an industry report on hospitals across the country. There were a couple of questions from board members answered before the meeting continued with the approval of the March meeting minutes.
Controller Matt Pace informed the board that home health and the BCMC Rural Health Clinic experienced increases, but other service lines were down compared to last month. March’s gross patient revenue came in at $3,435,424 with the net operating revenue at $1,302,853. The hospital reported a loss of $562,593 for the month. Sales tax collected totaled $108,834.07 to bring the fund to $5,931,566.03 overall.
CEO/CFO Leslie Huitt stated that revenue was consistent in March with what the hospital saw in February and the past several months. Expenses are down from last year, but contractual adjustments are still high. When you see the net patient service revenue on the income statement, there is very little left after contractual adjustments and bad debt to cover expenses which lead to operating losses. Collections were up in March and will need to stay at this level or get better to help slow the pattern in cash decrease.
Huitt transitioned to news about the BCMC Rural Health Clinic seeing 58 new patients in March and is hopeful to see that number keep rising. She let the board know they have not received the Medicaid Cost Report Settlement yet but is hoping it will be soon. Her last update was about BCMC moving to a self-funded health insurance model last year, and she was happy to report there was no rate increase this year.
Chief Nursing Officer Jamie Wolfe began his report with information that the hospital will provide a new service of GIP (general inpatient) hospice care beginning on May 4. There is training underway and he believes it will be a good service for the community and help the hospital with length of stay regulations. He is currently reviewing the linen usage for the hospital and has already saved close to $1,000 a week. He explained that some of that depends on the census, but he is hopeful there will be more savings there.
The census for the emergency department, med-surg, and senior care unit are up for the week and has kept Wolfe and the staff busy. Additionally, he commended Senior Care Director Lisa Hanson for working through times of being short-staffed and was happy to announce all full-time positions are currently filled in the unit. He concluded by letting the board know that he, along with members from maintenance and IT, will be attending an emergency preparedness meeting on May 6 in Little Rock. He said it will range from cybersecurity threats to mass-casualty incidents.
Chief Operating Officer Leeanna Williams announced that Dr. Bradley Biggers and Dr. Russell Gregory have begun a recurring health article that is being featured on social media and local media outlets. She recognized the team at BCMC Outpatient Therapy for assisting with the SEARK Miracle League recently. She continued by letting the board know that radiology patients will no longer receive CDs with their images, unless needed. They will receive a paper that has a link with a QR code to their results so they can take to other physicians.
Williams continued with an update on the possible expansion of space for the cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation department. It looks like they will not be able to expand the area, but other options are being explored. Her final update concerned service contracts. She is looking at possible ways to lower the costs of those contracts and see what options may be available.
Next up on the agenda was the approval of changes to the Medical Staff Bylaws. The changes were already passed by the Medical Staff but needed Governing Board approval as well. The board approved the Medical Staff Bylaws unanimously. Annual policy approvals were next with the Environmental Services, Employee Health, and Infection Prevention manuals up for a vote. All three were approved unanimously.
The board then went into an executive session. Once the board was out of executive session, the last order of business was the unanimous approval of medical staff recommendations before the meeting was adjourned.
For the latest news and updates regarding BCMC please like the Bradley County Medical Center Facebook page or follow us on Instagram (BCMCWarren) or X, formerly Twitter (BCMC Warren). To keep up with the most recent news and updates for the BCMC Rural Health Clinic, please like the BCMC Rural Health Clinic page on Facebook.
