WARREN, Ark. (7/27/26) – The Bradley County Medical Center Board of Directors met for its monthly meeting on Thursday, July 23 inside the hospital’s conference room with financial reports, updates from executives, policy approvals, and sales tax expenditures among the items discussed.
The gathering began with the approval of the June meeting minutes before CEO/CFO Leslie Huitt spoke about the hospital’s financial reports. Total gross patient revenue for the previous month was $3,370,669 with the net operating revenue coming in at $1,798,314. The hospital reported a net loss of $138,659. Sales tax collected was $115,468.90 to bring the total in the sales tax fund to $6,135,187.21.
Huitt explained to the board members that revenue was up by more than $300,000 compared to the prior year and increased by an amount of $350,000 against the previous month. A significant increase in swing bed days fueled this increase as the service was up 640% compared to last June and doubled the amount of swing bed days from May. She gave Marketing Director Tiffany White credit for helping this increase. Medicare reimbursement for swing bed is over $3,000 a day and is crucial to the survival of Critical Access Hospitals like BCMC.
Most other service lines were up as physical, speech, and occupational therapy all had significant increases over the prior year along with radiology visits. Home Health also eclipsed 1,000 visits in June. Surgery was one area that was down and that is mostly due to Dr. Sam Arnold being out.
Huitt continued and said while the revenue increasing $350,000 was a great sign, the net operating revenue only increased $53,000 so collections are still an area of concern. There has been a significant drop in operating cash, and they are going to be working on ways to improve the financial position of the hospital over the coming months. While cash is down, the investment accounts have seen growth and the interest is being reinvested.
The final update from Huitt was about the BCMC Rural Health Clinic. They had a down month, but most of that is because Dr. Russell Gregory was out for a couple of weeks. The clinic did see 43 new patients with 22 of those being with Dr. Bradley Biggers.
Chief Nursing Officer Jamie Wolfe spent most of his session talking about the issues transferring patients out. This is mostly due to other facilities saying they are full and he said it’s as bad or possibly worse than during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on the med/surg side. It is also hurting the emergency department, especially when dealing with patients who have mental health concerns. He emphasized this has been a statewide problem and not limited to BCMC. Currently, the hospital has adequate staffing in these areas, but having to keep patients longer can make things more stressful for staff, patients, and family members.
During Wolfe’s talk a board member inquired on whether BCMC was seeing an increase in patients and referrals. The administrators said they had gotten some senior care referrals due to another one being closed locally and said our radiology department tends to get many referrals from outside the county due to a better working relationship and quicker turnaround.
Huitt went on to explain that we have expectations for our physicians and staff members to deliver quality, hometown care to our patients and develop personal connections that can be hard to come by in larger facilities. She went on to highlight BJ Kidwell, who is from Warren and has been working the ER. Patients and staff members alike have given Kidwell numerous compliments for his work. This was just one example of the personal connection you have at Bradley County Medical Center.
Chief Operating Officer Leeanna Williams gave the board some exciting news that the cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation program had over 100 patient visits in the month. The service is growing and is really serving a need in our community. Additionally, she informed the board that four registration staff members completed a revenue cycle class for free through BCMC’s membership in the Arkansas Healthcare Financial Management Association. Other staff members are expected to complete the course, and the hope is they will have a better understanding of the revenue cycle and correct some inconsistencies during the registration process.
The meeting transitioned to annual policy approvals. The manuals for the Respiratory Therapy Department, Swing Bed Department, and Utilization Review were up for annual review. All three were approved unanimously. An update was given by Williams concerning the Laboratory Department policies. They are using a new pathology group now and those policies are in the process of being approved by that group before going to Medical Staff.
The board went into executive session. Medical staff recommendations were approved unanimously, and the final item of business was concerning the usage of sales tax funds. There were purchases to Allied Plumbing of $3,570.50 and $957.14, an IT Network Tester for $5,000, medical gas repairs by Quintech at $5,700, Harrison chiller repairs at $3,474.03, Harrison air handler at $6,313.05, and a Buekel forced air incubator at $3,500. There was unanimous approval to use sales tax funds for all of those purchases. The meeting was then adjourned with no further business.
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.
