The Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board of Trustees held its regular monthly meeting.

According to the financial report given by Mrs. Dawne Holmes, the Hospital had an overall loss of $1.36 million in April.

For the first seven months of the fiscal year, the overall loss totals $6.35 million, even after including grants and gifts from the city and county totaling just over $4 million.

Patient revenue was down $1.2 million from last month, while costs were down by $600,000. The slide in revenue was partly attributed to 33 fewer surgery patients in April, as well as fewer inpatient admissions and discharges.

At the end of April, the cash and equivalents were $3.43 million. Of the cash left, $2.10 million cannot be touched legally because it is in trust to cover the malpractice insurance. That would mean that in reality, at the end of April, there was $1.33 million in cash on hand available to spend.

In April, the hospital made approximately $102,000 in payments to Medicare for the repayment of the short term loan. The hospital still owes Medicare $4.98 million. So far, it has paid off $11.5 million of the original Medicare loan.

Mrs. Holmes provided an update on the progress of the hospital's application for critical access status. It has passed the review by Novitas, which is the Medicare claims processor for Mississippi, and now is being reviewed by the Atlanta regional Medicare office.

The board approved changing the employee service longevity award program from tangible gifts to cash payments. There are around 30 employees eligible for the award at present, which will cost just over $10,000 in total.

The board then went into executive session, with the public and the press excluded for 96 minutes.

While in executive session, the board voted to approve the resolution from the Leflore County Board of Supervisors regarding the hospital's eventual repayment of the $10 million line of credit being provided by the county to the hospital, as well as other conditions. The board also voted to approve an ongoing hospital accreditation process.