The Coahoma County Board of Supervisors got an update on Delta Health-Northwest Regional Hospital this week, with hospital administrators saying some things have gone well and some things are being worked on.
Delta Health System (DHS) purchased the Clarksdale hospital from Community Health System (CHS) in February 2021 and Scott Christensen, CEO of DHS, and Janet Benzing, Administrator of Delta Health-Northwest Regional, made a presentation Monday and then took questions from supervisors who hold the lease on the facility.
Christensen said staffing is the critical need right now and the hospital also needs local patients and local healthcare providers to use the hospital.
“The staffing concern is a national crisis and rural hospitals are finding it extremely difficult to find nurses, med-techs and staff,” said Christensen. “I have seen numbers where Mississippi has lost more than 3,000 nurses in the past year.”
Christensen said he had also seen a contract where nurses were paid $10,000 a month and living expenses to work three months in metropolitan areas.
“The big hospitals have more funds in reserve to pay that, but rural hospitals can’t,” Christensen said. “It’s not sustainable for us and it won’t be sustainable for them at some point.”
Christensen said this lack of staff has prompted the hospital to reduce its “census” or the number of beds it can fill. He said the number was 65-to-75 prior to COVID and currently is about 40-to-50. That has prompted the hospital to send patients elsewhere and reduce staffing for ICU, surgery and medical tech.
Clarksdale is relying on local nurses who live in a region and is heavily recruiting nurses fresh out of nursing school.
“We have made contact with every nursing program in the Delta and there are some who want to work locally,” said Christensen. He pointed to a decline in COVID numbers and said he hopes the market will stabilize and return to some form or normalcy.
Christensen said the next problem is getting locals to try Northwest Regional first. He pointed out local people should seek local healthcare providers before they head to Memphis or Oxford and local healthcare providers should use the local hospital.
“We have reached out to local healthcare providers and urged them to look at what we can do,” said Christensen. “We can take good care of their patients. If we don’t I want them to tell me about it. Local healthcare providers want what is best for their patients. I understand that. We want what is best for that patient, too.”
He has said the emergency room is “the front door to the hospital” and most patients who are admitted come through the ER and are not referred by or don’t have a regular physician.
“The emergency room has been one of the bright spots,” said Christensen. “Our wait time to see and be treated by a doctor is down. They have really worked hard and have saved lives.”
He also said the labor and delivery suites at the hospital are some of the nicest in the region and that is a hospital strength.
Going forward Christensen said the hospital will be focusing on recruiting Nurse Practitioners and Family Nurse Practitioners to funnel patients to the hospital. He said recruiting doctors to the Mississippi Delta is still a challenge and DHS’s Mississippi Delta Family Medicine Residency program is beginning to bear fruit.
Research shows that 60-percent of medical residents will choose to continue their practice in the area where they did their residency. It is hoped some of those new doctors will choose Clarksdale.
Parts of Clarksdale’s hospital were built in 1952 and both Christensen and Benzing said keeping an aging facility going is expensive and repairs and renovation plans quickly climb into the six-figure range and beyond.
Christensen said the ballpark number for a new hospital is $1-million per bed. He said the Flowers wing is in better shape than initially thought and could be renovated with a different floor plan. But again he added the hospital can’t make that investment if they are short-staffed and unable to sustain a higher patient capacity.
When asked point-blank by Dist. 2 Supervisor Pat Davis if the hospital had made money the last two quarters, Christensen said “no.”
Board of Supervisors President Johnny Newson said he felt “COVID is subsiding and things will soon drift back to normal.” He also urged DHS to hire local people.
District 3 Supervisor Derrell Washington asked if DHS had contacted Mississippi lawmakers about rural healthcare concerns.
“The biggest and best thing that could happen to this state and rural healthcare is Medicaid expansion,” said Christensen. “We also know there is a lot of politics involved, but they need to take care of people who do not have payment resources and do that so rural hospitals can still get paid for their services.”
Dist. 1 Supervisor Paul Pearson said he hears it when things go wrong at the hospital, but they have been the exception and not the rule.
“I know people who have used our hospital and they said they were well cared for,” said Pearson. “They did talk about it looked a little more vacant and quiet, but they were pleased with their treatment and results.”
Pearson also pointed out in 1952 the hospital had 81 beds and 49,000 people lived in the county. He said the current population is about 21,000.
Dist. 5 Supervisor Roosevelt Lee said he had family use the emergency room and he was impressed with the wait-time, service and care.
Christensen said Coahoma County has had problems with its hospital in the past – the managers prior to CHS declared bankruptcy – he said he can’t change the past, but he would urge the community to try Delta Health-Northwest Regional first.
“We don’t offer everything, but I will put our primary care services up against anyone around here,” said Christensen. “We offer a variety of basic, foundational services and we’re good at it.”
In closing Christensen said he needed two things: “I need staff and I need the local medical community to support their local hospital.”
Delta Health System has been serving the Mississippi Delta since 1953 with the mission of providing high quality medical services to the citizens and communities in the Tri-State Region. Headquartered in Greenville, DHS has more than 20 clinics and doctors working out of Greenville and also has hospitals and clinics in Cleveland, Clarksdale and Senatobia.
