Wednesday, August 24, 2022, 5:54 pm News Flash Archive

This morning, Greenwood Leflore Hospital announced that it is re-opening 12 inpatient medical/surgical beds.

To read the entire press release, see here: Greenwood Leflore Hospital Reopens Limited Inpatient Services

GLH had to shut down most of its hospital-based operations on Monday, August 15 due to a sewage backup issue. Clinics housed in the main hospital were closed, and all patients were transferred to other facilities as far away as Pine Bluff, Arkansas. At that time, the hospital had fluctuated between 20 and 35 inpatient beds occupied.

When GLH was able to re-open again Thursday, August 18, it did not reopen inpatient care or restart admitting patients. At that time, GLH stated:

The hospital continues to be on diversion and is temporarily delaying the re-opening of inpatient services. Further analysis is required to determine with labor shortages and higher labor costs how we can continue to operate while remaining viable until a lease is finalized.

See our reporting here: Greenwood Leflore Hospital re-opens but will not admit patients at this time

But today, GLH announced that, based upon careful analysis, it is re-opening 12 beds for inpatient admissions:

Today, we are announcing the reopening of limited inpatient services. Effective at 12:00 p.m., the hospital is reopening 12 medical/surgical beds. These beds will accommodate post-surgical inpatients and medical admissions. These beds will also accommodate patients under observation for less than 24 hours. Inpatient bed operations will not be staffed by contract nurses, but rather by nurses who are employed by the hospital.

The hospital reopened all outpatient services last week. The Labor & Delivery Unit remains staffed only for Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act purposes. The hospital's ICU remains temporarily closed. These two service lines remain under review. The hospital has committed to continuing service availability without the use of contract labor.

Contract nurses are significantly more expensive to utilize, in part because nursing shortages are a problem nation-wide at this time.

This announcement is good news for the hospital's ability to resume "big ticket" surgical procedures, especially in orthopedics, where many of the procedures cannot be done on an outpatient basis like many other types of surgery can be.

To review our reporting on GLH and its financial woes, please see here: Index of Greenwood Leflore Hospital news articles

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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