GREENWOOD, Miss.—Shakeila Robinson, the owner and director of Kiddy Kave Learning Center 2 in Greenwood, is required to be CPR certified as a daycare director in Mississippi.
On April 29, she took the skills exam section of the CPR test at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. Without a local hospital, she said, it would have been hard to meet that requirement; her students keep her on a tight schedule throughout the day.
“I have (daytime) kids and after-school kids. So, I wouldn’t be able to go far to take a skills exam,” Robinson told the Mississippi Free Press on April 29.
But soon that option may no longer be available after Greenwood Leflore announced to employees last month that it could be forced to shut down as soon as June 15 due to a years-long financial crisis. That would leave Greenwood residents without a hospital for 33 miles.
It’s just the latest blow for Robinson, a Greenwood native, who opened her daycare in 2021. The daycare offered slots for 25 young people at its peak enrollment numbers. But in March, the Mississippi Legislature slashed $15 million in childcare funding with House Bill 1909, reducing the daycare’s enrollment to only 10 slots. Now she fears losing more of the vital services the hospital provides.
“They always have resources that are free. They send out flyers where you can see the different things,” Robinson said. “(The CPR exam) is a free thing because I have a daycare. (GLH) is a good asset to me.”
Since 2020, the now 120-year-old hospital has struggled, falling steadily deeper into debt after the COVID-19 pandemic drained most of its resources.
As the hospital fought to stay afloat in recent years, it shuttered a host of services, including closing its labor and delivery unit, its intensive-care unit, neurosurgery services, and inpatient dialysis and urology services. The med-surge floors that were previously opened for overnight stays have been closed as well, leaving the hospital’s services limited to mostly outpatient care.
On April 8, the hospital conducted mass layoffs, leaving 86 employees jobless and shuttering four more departments: outpatient rehabilitation, its wellness center, after-hours clinic and cardiac rehab. The hospital filed for bankruptcy in mid-April.
Unless the hospital strikes a deal with a larger healthcare system, everything else soon could be gone, too.
“I have parents that are older,” Robinson said. “They are both 70-something years old. GLH is all they know. This is a great concern, family-wise.”
Candidate: Hospital A ‘Big Beautiful Betrayal’
Shakeila Robinson was present outside Greenwood Leflore Hospital on April 29 when Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, spoke about the crisis in an adjacent parking lot.
“Greenwood Leflore Hospital is 120 years old. It has survived a lot. As of June 15th, it may be closed,” Colom said. “(This) is going to have a really negative effect on healthcare in this area.”
Joining Colom were Delta residents Martha Young and Mario Robinson, who gave testimonials about the importance of the facility in the community.
“When you talk about the hospital, it runs deep to me,” Mario Robinson said. “When you close hospitals in communities like this, it’s not just closing healthcare, but you’re closing one of the biggest economic engines for families in the community.”
Colom sharply criticized Hyde-Smith for her actions in Congress, saying that her support of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act has exacerbated Mississippi’s healthcare troubles.
“Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith has made the situation worse, because with the Big, Beautiful Betrayal, she no longer made expanding Medicaid a solution to the healthcare crisis in Mississippi,” he said
Colom was referring to the fact that Mississippi is one of the states that has refused federal funds to expand Medicaid to as many as 300,000 residents since former President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law in 2010.
On April 21, Hyde-Smith’s campaign responded to claims Colom has made previously that tied Mississippi’s rural healthcare struggles to her actions and her support for Trump’s 2025 law.
“Scott Colom is distorting the facts in an attempt to capitalize politically on an issue he clearly does not understand. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has made improving rural healthcare a priority since she was first elected, and she will continue to do so,” said her campaign manager Jake Monssen, who was previously the constituent services representative for then-Rep. Kristi Noem of South Dakota.
Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4, 2026, slashing federal healthcare funding by $1 trillion and reducing healthcare coverage and access to supplemental benefits such as SNAP and TANF for millions of Americans.
While Hyde-Smith backed the law, she was also a part of a bipartisan effort with U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson to help Greenwood Leflore Hospital get funding through the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program. That money helped, but millions in clawbacks for reimbursements that the Mississippi Division of Medicaid initiated last year wounded the hospital even more deeply.
Colom believes that canceling federal healthcare cuts is a possible solution to the crisis the state is facing, as rural healthcare services face cuts elsewhere, too.
“What we are seeing today is the beginning of a crisis that’s going to hit not just the Delta. It’s going to hit every part of the state if we do not cancel those healthcare cuts and save our hospital,” the Democratic candidate said.
Colom concluded the press conference by making a commitment to the community to prioritize accessible and affordable healthcare in Mississippi.
“My commitment to you all is that my number-one priority, when we win this election together, is that we are going to prioritize accessible and affordable healthcare all across the state of Mississippi,” he said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that communities like Greenwood have the resources they need.”
‘Our Community Needs a Hospital’
Lora Evans worked at Greenwood Leflore Hospital for 30 years before the administration laid her off April 8. The former managed-care director and director of admissions was among the attendees at Colom’s press conference.
“I just wanted to hear what the potential senator had to say, you know, just to listen,” Evans told the Mississippi Free Press.
Evans, who became the admissions director at GLH in 2022, said that having a local hospital is crucial for the community.
“We have to have a hospital. We have to be able to stabilize people before they can be transported to other facilities,” she said.
A native of Louise, about 50 miles away, and a longtime resident of Greenwood, Evans said she believes the hospital is a necessary fixture in the community, even for people who no longer live in the Delta.
“Our community needs a hospital. We have to have a hospital,” she said. I have family and friends that live out of state. They were calling me concerned over the last few years. Our families are still in the Delta.”
Read more coverage of the Mississippi Delta on our Delta Free Press bureau site.
