WARREN, Ark. (5/22/25) – The Bradley County Medical Center Board of Directors held the meeting for the month of May on Thursday, May 22 inside the hospital’s conference room with financial reports, executive updates, annual approval of policies, and more among the items reviewed.
The first order of business was approval of the previous meeting’s minutes, and the meeting moved to Controller Matt Pace’s financial update. Pace informed the board that most service lines were down over the last month, but speech therapy and home health are seeing increases. Gross patient revenue for April came in at just under $3.4 million while net operating revenue was at $1,458,768. There was a loss of $428,394, while the sales tax fund added $106,154.94 to bring the fund’s total to $5,291,326.95.
CEO/CFO Leslie Huitt started her update by notifying the board that cash increased by $460,000 in April and was mostly due to receiving the Medicaid Cost Report initial settlement. BCMC received around $722,000 but had to send another $299,000 back to Medicare. However, Huitt had Wipfli, an advisory firm, conduct an interim cost report that showed us we are making great improvement and are trending toward getting the $299,000 back plus an additional $84,000.
Overall cash is up 3% since the end of the last fiscal year and up 8.7% from the same time last year. Additionally, BCMC has added over $500,000 to its investment accounts since the fiscal year started on Oct. 1, 2024. Cash collections were up in April but are trending down in May unless there is an increase in the last couple of weeks of the month. Huitt touched on Dr. Russell Gregory being hired at the BCMC Rural Health Clinic with a start date of Aug. 4 and is excited about what he will bring to the clinic.
Huitt continued by praising the home health department and work they’ve been doing lately to improve revenue. There is now a monthly dashboard she and the department are utilizing with goals for improving collections and days in AR (accounts receivable). In just a month the days in AR have come down almost a full week from just over 40 days to 33 days. She is excited about the progress already made and the continued improvement the department should see. She concluded by letting the group know the repairs on the roof at the UAMS Kids First building on Bragg Street are underway.
Chief Nursing Officer Jamie Wolfe let the board know that Dr. Bradley Biggers wanted to give a shout out to the staffs of the emergency department, laboratory, radiology, and med-surg unit. There was a severe trauma case to come to the ER and all of them worked together to get the patient the best care possible and ready to be airlifted. He also commended the surgery staff. There were 11 cases yesterday and the majority of them complimented the staff. Wolfe also spoke about the need to replace a warming cabinet in surgery for $6,174 with sales tax money and the board approved it unanimously.
Chief Operating Officer Leeanna Williams spoke about BCMC adding pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation to the hospital’s services. She, Respiratory Therapy Director Sharee Williams, and respiratory therapist Stephanie Slaughter all traveled to Howard Memorial Hospital in Nashville, Ark., to see how they run their operation. The group came back with great ideas and felt confident in adding pulmonary rehab soon. The cardiac rehab portion may have to wait until the hospital can update its telemetry equipment, but it is still being explored.
There was some discussion about recent power surges and the effect it has on hospital equipment with the latest victim being a freezer in the laboratory department that didn’t come back up after a recent outage. The cost is around $13,000 for a new one and the board approved using sales tax funds to cover the cost.
The meeting transitioned into annual policy approvals. Policy manuals up for approval were Environmental Services and Infection Control and both were approved unanimously by the board.
The board went into executive session with medical staff recommendations approved by the meeting was adjourned.
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