WARREN, Ark. (6/25/26) – The Bradley County Medical Center Board of Directors met for its monthly gathering on Thursday, June 25 inside the hospital’s conference room. BCMC’s 75th Anniversary Celebration, M*A*S*H Camp, higher volumes, financial reports, executive updates, and policy approvals were among the items on the agenda.
The first item of business was the unanimous approval of the minutes from the May meeting before Controller Matt Pace gave his financial report. Volumes were up across most services compared to last year apart from surgery and chronic care management. The total gross patient revenue came in at $3,369,721 for May, while the net operating revenue was $1,745,068. The hospital reported a net loss of $226,574. The sales tax fund added $121,066.21 to bring the total in the fund to a little over $6 million.
CEO/CFO Leslie Huitt began her update by saying how organized and smoothly the 75th Anniversary Celebration went on June 11. She thanked all those who helped make it possible and made sure to give credit to Executive Secretary Brenda Bryant, who played a tremendous role in the celebration. Huitt received compliments from guests about the event and how much they enjoyed catching up with people who came in from out of town for the event.
Huitt informed the board that the Hermitage School District will have physicals at the BCMC Rural Health Clinic on Friday, July 10. Dr. Bradley Biggers and Dr. Russell Gregory will both be there to assist. There were 29 new patients at the Rural Health Clinic last month. Huitt continued by informing the board that the service line of inpatient hospice has started. The hospital is continuing to look to reduce expenses and was recently able to reduce the price of its monthly expense for email from around $3,300 to around $1,200.
Huitt gave an update on the Pact portion of the Rural Health Transformation Program with the generator and help to restart the Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) on the proposal. She is also considering submitting a proposal for renovations to the hospital. Indications are that proposals from one entity will not be accepted, but she thinks it could be worth the effort. One order of business Huitt had was the renewal of building and cybersecurity insurance from Stephens, Inc. The policy is cheaper this year than last and was approved unanimously. She concluded by saying that EASI is expected to start moving into the new ambulance house next week.
Chief Nursing Officer Jamie Wolfe let the board know that M*A*S*H Camp for local high schoolers was last week and was a success. It takes a bunch of teamwork to pull this event off and the staff love participating. His only other update was concerning the telemetry system by Mindray. They are expected to start installing the new system on Aug. 10.
Chief Operating Officer Leeanna Williams echoed Huitt’s and Wolfe’s praise for the staff and the effort put into hosting the 75th Anniversary Celebration and M*A*S*H Camp. She informed the board about the first graduate of the pulmonary rehabilitation program, which comes about a month after the first cardiac rehabilitation graduate. She finished with some positive words about Leah McIntyre and the Laboratory Department that has been working on getting new analyzers and other equipment installed.
The meeting moved to annual policy approvals with HIPAA and Registration up for a vote. Both were approved by the board unanimously. Four solo polices were up for approval as well. They were Emergency Childbirth Protocol; Management of Obstetric Patients; Multidrug-Resistant Organisms (MDRO) (ESBL) Identification, Precautions and Management; and Postpartum Mother and Newborn. All four were approved unanimously.
The next portion of the gathering concerned purchases using sales tax funds. The first was the purchase of two internet switches for $3,520. The next item was a compressor in a chiller that was affecting humidity levels in the lab for a price of $12,696. The final piece concerned where medical gas enters the building. It is not up to code currently, and the initial estimate for the equipment is around $23,540. Huitt recommended allotting up to $40,000 in sales tax funds to account for labor costs and other potential add-ons with that project. All three were approved by the board unanimously.
Huitt also presented the results of a high-level revenue cycle summary from Wipfli. They conducted this summary for free. The main point was that the hospital is not getting reimbursement from Medicare and Medicare Advantage at the rate they should be. There were also 392 accounts non-self-pay accounts that were 100% adjusted with no insurance payment activity. The board previously approved $15,000 for a full revenue cycle audit from Wipfli and will begin that project soon. She will report back to the board if more funds are needed to continue the project.
The board went into executive session and last order of business was the unanimous approval of medical staff recommendations before the meeting was adjourned.
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