WARREN, Ark. (7/1/25) – The Bradley County Medical Center Board of Directors met for its June meeting on Thursday, June 26 inside the hospital’s conference room with financial reports, updates from executives, policy approvals, and more on the agenda.
The gathering began with approval of the minutes from the May session before Controller Matt Pace presented his financial report. Pace stated that most services were down apart from surgery and home health. The gross patient revenue for May was $3,539,349, while the net operating revenue totaled $1,632,740. There was a $273,847 loss for the month, while the sales tax collected was over $115,000 to bring the sales tax fund total to $5,413,142.63.
The first item CEO/CFO Leslie Huitt touched on in her update dealt with a $183,000 increase in cash. Most of this was due to receiving the 2020 and 2021 final Medicaid cost settlements. She also said the erratic accounts receivable are a concern for her. Huitt then touched on the BCMC Rural Health Clinic and talked about the revenue its two family practice APRNs April Harris and Kristen Harvey generate for the hospital, with both coming in at over $300,000 for the year.
Huitt continued by letting the board know there will be three options from the architects at the next meeting. Another item she touched on was trying to recoup some money from 2015, and the case had stalled, but Senator John Boozman’s office is now involved and is helping to get the ball rolling. BCMC will receive around $240k from the 2015 settlement and another $448,000 back after the Medicare rate adjustment for the current year. Huitt was able to obtain a grant from the National Rural Health Association for a debt capacity and service line feasibility study, which resulted in saving close to $30,000. She also gave an update on American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and said they are relaxing some of the requirements and giving more flexibility to the facilities. She is hopeful BCMC will be able to earn this money.
The board approved the use of sales tax funds to pay for the roof installation at Kids First and another $20,000 for air conditioners. There was then a lengthy discussion about the purchase of a new telemetry system for the cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation service line along with other equipment needed. There was an option presented to purchase a new telemetry system for the entire hospital. The total cost of the telemetry system and equipment for cardiopulmonary rehabilitation came in at just under $200,000. The board unanimously approved the use of sales tax funds for those items.
The last element the board decided on during Huitt’s time was concerning property insurance. The options were to stick with the current policy through the Alliant Property Insurance Program (APIP) or a new proposal from Gallagher. The board opted to stay with the current policy with an additional $9,000 added on for increased cybersecurity insurance.
Chief Nursing Officer Jamie Wolfe told the board that the hospital was hosting its Mini-MASH Camp with 10 local students. It’s a busy time and requires a lot of work and volunteers, but it’s always a fun program and people look forward to it. He continued by stating there was nothing out of the ordinary to report aside from the normal fluctuation with staff and patient census. He let the board know that Laura Handly came aboard as the new surgery manager last month, and all was going well in that department with the transition.
Wolfe put the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) Policy up for annual approval along with a new solo policy concerning staff screening and exposure management for measles, rubella, and varicella. Both were passed unanimously. He ended his time by letting the board know about a number of different reports that were in the packets dealing with quality assurance and performance improvement (QAPI) and HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) surveys.
The board went into executive session, and the medical staff recommendations were approved by the board unanimously.
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