VIDEO: Potential Changes Coming To An Area Hospital

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)-To sell, to keep, or to lease those are the questions facing the Oktibbeha County board of supervisors regarding the future of the Oktibbeha County Hospital.

 
“Right now everything is hope, or I think, or I feel or maybe, but we need some concrete info, some concrete data,” said board president Orlando Trainer.

On Monday the board of supervisors heard some concrete info from their consulting agency, Stroudwater Associates.

It was just over two months ago when the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors chose Stroudwater Associates as the consulting agency to come in and asses OCH.

“What we tried to do today is paint a picture of the risks of the hospital as a standalone independent hospital,” said Jeff Sommer, director with Stroudwater Associates. “We also described a little bit about some of the risks of If you were to seek out a lessee or an acquirer, what those might look like and how do you mitigate those.”

During the presentation, Stroudwater presented the possibilities of all three options and the risks that would come with each one.

“We have a lens and strategic framework in which we look at each of those pieces,” Sommer explained. “The idea is to come back and say, OK, given the risk and opportunities that the organization faces, how does this actually look on a profile busniess.”

However the agency didn’t recommend any particular option, but they did talk about a few of the risks that comes with the hospital.

“I would say in this case the are a number of risks of that standalone independent operation that certainly we’d want the supervisors and the hospital board to be fully aware of before making any decisions,” said Sommer.  “Another source of risks really goes to cashflow and margins, and are you generations adequate cash to reinvest in the business.”

Board president Orlando trainer said he realizes how much potential could come from this.

After continuously talking about this topic for nearly two terms, Trainer said the board is just ready to move forward in the process.

“In order for us to really get the full effect, we need to go through the process from A to Z, and anywhere along the process we can make a change of mind, a change of course, we can do some things differently,” said Trainer. ” However, at the same time, to really know and to really get a good idea of what’s at steak, we must move forward in the process.”

Supervisors expect to hold a public hearing in mid-November.