GREENWOOD, Miss.—Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s future is secured after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Mississippi approved the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s acquisition of the facility, creating “UMMC Greenwood.” The court’s approval was the last necessary step after multiple levels of approval from the Greenwood City Council, Leflore County Board of Supervisors and Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees.
Gary Marchand, the hospital’s former interim CEO who has served as a consultant since his retirement last year, told the Greenwood City Council on Tuesday that UMMC representatives are already at GLH installing UMMC information systems and technological infrastructure. There will be no interruption in any of the hospital’s operations or services and it will simply transition to UMMC control on Aug. 1.
“It’s not hit me yet, but I’m sure at some point I’m going to realize what we’ve all done together, which is save Greenwood Leflore Hospital,” Marchand told the council.
For the past year, GLH and the Mississippi Division of Medicaid were locked in a dispute after the state agency began clawing back Medicaid overpayments following the agency’s annual reconciliation process. Marchand told the council that hospital administrators realized GLH was insolvent in December and approached three hospital systems about taking over GLH. Two declined, but one party expressed interest—the University of Mississippi Medical Center, headquartered in Jackson. GLH and UMMC had negotiated twice over the last decade but could never close a deal.
Marchand explained that normally, a lease or purchase process could take a year or longer. But because both GLH and UMMC are public entities, the process could be quickened.
“To University’s credit, we took about a 12- to 13-month process and jammed it into four or five months,” he said.
UMMC will take on the hospital’s outstanding Medicare and Medicaid liabilities. It will also take responsibility for years of deferred maintenance needs, such as GLH’s much-needed roof repairs, a wish-list item that the hospital wanted to address but never could due to its financial crisis. Marchand said the GLH bankruptcy process could take up to 18 months, but it is mostly a matter of paperwork and regulatory filings.
“I know it took an immense amount of patience to go through this process where we’re saying, ‘We’re out of money. We’re insolvent—but we don’t want to close.’ We just kept kicking this can down the road and it looks like we’re going to finally protect our services on Aug. 1,” Marchand said.
Greenwood City Council President Ronnie Stevenson praised Marchand’s leadership and commitment to keeping GLH open. Marchand, who spent 15 years as CEO at Memorial Hospital Gulfport, came out of a brief retirement in 2019 and served as GLH’s interim CEO for two years. It ended up becoming a seven-year relationship, with Marchand serving a second time as interim CEO before retiring again last year.
“Like Mr. Marchand said, this took a lot of work from the community, both the county and city boards and the hospital board,” Stevenson said. “And Gary was the one that led us and I want to thank him for his leadership, his leadership when we had to go through IHL, his leadership when we had to go sue the state of Mississippi for our money and his leadership through our bankruptcy.”
“That was a lot of large hurdles to cross,” he continued. “I always said those were our three main hurdles. We have now crossed those hurdles and look like we’re at the finish line. Come Aug. 1, we will cross that finish line, I hope, and Gary, we thank you for helping us get to that finish line.”
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