NATCHEZ — Early Thursday morning, while much of the city was still asleep, the finishing touches were being put on a $3 million loan for Natchez Regional Medical Center.

Hospital CEO Scott Phillips said the loan was a milestone for the hospital and would provide much-needed breathing room.

On Thursday afternoon hospital attorney Walter Brown said no one showed up to contest the hospital’s loan at a mandatory validation meeting.

“It went smoothly,” he said.

Brown said the hospital was scheduled to receive the money on Thursday, or today, at the latest.

“We’ve cleared the legal hurdles,” he said of the loan.

Of the $3 million loan, $1 million will be used to pay hospital debt while the other $2 million will fund the hospital’s restructuring effort.

And on Thursday morning a critical part of the hospital’s restructuring started.

Members of the Horne Group met with Phillips before beginning their in house evaluation of the NRMC.

On June 24 Horne was hired as a consultant to conduct a study of the hospital.

The results of that study are expected to reveal a need to sell or lease the hospital.

While Thursday was the first day Horne representatives were on campus, Phillips said their study actually started days before.

Phillips said consultants with the firm have been conducting an extensive study on all matters of data dealing with the hospital.

“It was due diligence on the data,” he said.

To begin a physical study of the campus, Horne’s consultant Barry Plunkett and CPA David Williams were at NRMC on Thursday morning.

On Thursday afternoon Plunkett said after meeting with Phillips the trio took a lengthy tour of the hospital’s facility and began the process of interviewing hospital employees.

Phillips likened the employee interviews to “taking the hospital’s pulse.”

While the hospital study is not scheduled to be finished until the end of July Plunkett said things were going smoothly.

Plunkett said he was “encouraged” with the level of pride employees have in their place of employment.

And Plunkett’s news was not the only positive news coming from the hospital.

Phillips said the hospital is in a position to become cash neutral by the end of July.

“Basically the cash coming in equals the cash going out,” he said. “It’s another milestone for us.”

Aside from the soon to be cash neutral status of the facility Phillips said the hospital is still moving on schedule to possibly be sold or leased by September.

With the positive momentum the hospital is experiencing Phillips said he has great confidence in the hospital’s future.

“This hospital is going to thrive,” he said.