It had gotten to the point a while back, that every morning when I opened up The Natchez Democrat, I expected there would be an announcement of a binding purchase agreement between Adams County and Community Health Systems. You know, the NRMC purchase deal that has been rumored to be a done deal for months now.

When it was not forthcoming in a timely manner, I questioned in print whether the deal might be in trouble. Though there remain many unanswered questions swirling around NRMC, at least one question was answered in Sunday’s article in The Natchez Democrat. It seems as though we now have a fly in the sale ointment in the form a pesky little no-so-fast opinion from the State Attorney General’s Office concerning the use of the $8 million pre-paid tax payment being used to pay off bond debt and other NRMC debt.

The Attorney General’s Office did give us an out by saying that if the Mississippi Development Authority would classify the sale as an “economic development project,” that classification would allow the sale to proceed.

So now, it appears the fate of the proposed sale hinges on receiving that designation from the MDA.

So where do we stand? Our hospital has been so badly managed that we are in bankruptcy for the second time in five years, after apparently burning through a $9.79 million dollar windfall received in late 2012 or early 2013 in the form of a judgment against NRMC’s former management company. Our crack sale negotiating team has negotiated a deal that is structured in a manner deemed unacceptable by the Attorney General’s Office, unless we can get it classified as an “economic development project” by the MDA.

Folks, I have to ask you all two simple questions at this point: Are you satisfied with the job done to this point by NRMC’s management, board of trustees and attorney? Are you satisfied with the job done to this point by Health Management Partners, the consultant hired now for the second time to try and sell NRMC? If you answered no to these two simple questions, it is time that we put our collective voices together and demand our elected officials lead us in a different direction.

Our supervisors will tell us that they cannot remove the trustees they appointed to the NRMC board for anything short of committing a felony. They will also tell us that they cannot remove the board attorney, which was hired by the board of trustees, not the board of supervisors. To that I say hog wash. Any employment contract can be cancelled for gross negligence on behalf of the party hired, and if bankruptcy twice in five years does not fit that bill, I don’t know what does.

It is time for our elected board of supervisors to wrestle control of this situation away from a board of trustees, board attorney and hired consultant who were never elected by anyone. They have proven their collective ineptitude. Then, the supervisors should pink-slip the entire NRMC management.

They should hire a new administrator and appoint a new board of trustees and new board attorney.

Instead of using bankruptcy to clean up untidy details for a purchaser, let’s hire someone competent and take shot a reorganizing NRMC through bankruptcy. We can always sell it later at a fair sale price if it can’t be straightened out. I no longer trust the people telling us that a fair sale right now is our only option. In retrospect, I can’t believe I ever fell for that notion.

The first step toward that different direction is letting your voice be heard by your supervisor, because they obviously do not listen to any message delivered solely by me.

Please take a minute to make sure the supervisors get the message by letting your voice be heard.

 

Chuck Fields

Adams County resident