Why one Singing River board member voted against recommending sale of Coast hospital

In June, Singing River Health System recommended that Jackson County put the hospital system up for sale.

A review of the health system’s board meeting minutes from that process, recently obtained via a public records request, shows the decision to recommend a sale was not unanimous.

On June 1, one member of Singing River’s eight-member board of trustees voted against recommending the sale, and read a statement into the record explaining her reasons.

The dissenting trustee, Bonnie Granger, wrote that while Singing River does face financial challenges, “we have a number of contingent receivables that could give us some financial relief,” citing “the probability of favorable outcomes” from several lawsuits, including disputes the hospital has litigated against the Jackson County Outsource Group and accounting firm KPMG.

“While other health systems in our region are currently losing tens of millions of dollars each year, we have not,” Granger wrote. “I believe we can return to a healthy system again with the right commitment of the board and experienced leadership.”

The Sun Herald reported in June that, whereas Memorial Hospital at Gulfport lost $61 million in its 2021 fiscal year, Singing River fell just $95,000 shy of breaking even in the same period.

Singing River administrators have argued that its position of relative financial health means now is a good time to seek a buyer, rather than waiting too long and being in a weaker negotiating position.

“We don’t want to turn out like Blockbuster and be a fire sale” by delaying an inevitable sale, hospital CEO Tiffany Murdock said at a county supervisors’ meeting in July.

Granger said “further study and analysis” was needed on the potential effects of a sale on the the level of services the hospital will provide. She noted that, two weeks prior to the meeting, “we had a county’s hospital on the Coast lose its ability to deliver babies within the county” — a reference to Ochsner Health System closing the labor and delivery department at its Bay St. Louis hospital.

Ochsner, which operates a network of hospitals across Mississippi and Louisiana, is expected to bid on Singing River if the proposal for a sale succeeds.

Granger additionally argued the hospital needed “a contingency plan in case the Board of Supervisors or the public decide this is not the right decision as well as a plan to not lose money in the meantime.”

“This is a decision that affects the lives of all our residents and this recommendation is a very serious transaction,” Granger wrote. “Once this decision is made, it may be irreversible.”

Asked to respond to Granger’s comments, a spokesperson for Singing River said in a statement provided to the Sun Herald, “A strategic partnership would give us the capital resources to invest in our system of care, and in our staff, to continue the positive growth we have forged over the past several years.”

The statement did not address Granger’s specific comments and was consistent with arguments for the sale the hospital has previously presented at public meetings and on a website, SingingRiverForward.com.

Granger, a former school district administrator and accountant in the state auditor’s office who has been on the hospital board for six years, did not return a request for comment.

Though Granger was the only board member to vote against recommending the sale on June 1, she was not alone in expressing hesitation.

Board member Pam Lindsey read a statement into the record which read in part, “I’m having a difficult time with this decision because as a new board trustee, I don’t have thorough knowledge of the background history. I was born and most of my family & friends were born at SRH, so this hospital means a great deal to me!”

On August 17, the Jackson County board of supervisors will hold a public hearing on whether to put the hospital up for sale.

If a sufficient number of signatures is collected in support of a referendum, citizens of the county will then be given the opportunity to vote on the sale.