Bradley County Medical Center has entered into a management consulting and co-branding agreement with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), a move hospital officials say will provide access to additional resources while allowing the hospital to maintain control of its operations.
The agreement was approved Thursday, September 24, during the regularly scheduled meeting of the BCMC Board of Directors.
Under the agreement, BCMC will retain ownership of its assets, operations and oversight. The hospital will continue to have full operational authority, and there will be no changes to patient services, hospital employees or daily operations as a result of the agreement.
BCMC CEO Leslie Huitt said the hospital also will retain its legal name.
“This is not a name change,” Huitt said.
UAMS will provide management consulting and advisory services in several key operational areas. The university will be able to make recommendations aimed at improving hospital operations, identifying potential vendor relationships and strengthening financial and operational performance, but BCMC will remain responsible for making decisions.
BCMC is paying UAMS a consulting fee for the services. The agreement does not provide BCMC with funding from UAMS, and the hospital is not required to implement recommendations made by the university.
“We need access to resources that a larger facility can provide for us,” Huitt said.
Huitt said BCMC has experienced a downward financial trend throughout the current fiscal year and has been looking for ways to improve operations and identify additional resources.
She said federal stimulus and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding had previously helped support the hospital, but those programs have ended.
“When we had stimulus money and ARPA money coming in, it helped, and those programs have stopped,” Huitt said.
Another component of the agreement will involve facility planning. Huitt said the hospital’s approximately 75-year-old facility presents long-term planning challenges, particularly because the existing sales tax fund would not be sufficient to finance a new hospital if one becomes necessary.
The partnership also is expected to create opportunities for UAMS students to complete clinical rotations in the area. Huitt said the rotations could help establish a pipeline for recruiting future health care workers to South Arkansas.
The agreement also could increase patient volume for local services, including swing bed and home health programs. Patients from the area who are transferred to UAMS for treatment could potentially return to the region after discharge and receive appropriate follow-up services through BCMC.
“We want to meet patients where they are,” Huitt said.
Huitt emphasized that the agreement is non-binding and can be terminated by either party with 60 days’ notice if either organization determines the arrangement is not working as expected.
Looking ahead, Huitt said one of her primary goals for the first year of the partnership is to improve the hospital’s financial position.
She said she hopes BCMC will finish its first fiscal year under the agreement with a positive margin, improved cash position and higher patient satisfaction.
Huitt stressed that the partnership is intended to add resources rather than change the identity or day-to-day operation of BCMC.
“At the end of the day, nothing is changing at BCMC,” Huitt said. “We are still who we are with the resources of UAMS.”
