By GREG JORDAN
BLUEFIELD — Members of the Bluefield Regional Medical Center Board of Directors met Tuesday in a special meeting to see where the hospital now stood and where it may go after talks about a possible merger with Princeton Community Hospital and ownership by a for-profit hospital stopped last week.
The purpose of the meeting was “to consider strategic alternatives,” BRMC officials stated in a public announcement. Both BRMC’s board and the Princeton Community Hospital Association Board of Directors had been considering memorandums of understanding (MOU) to continue talks about a possible consolidation of BRMC and PCH into a two-campus entity owned by LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. and jointly managed with WVU Hospitals, a not-for-profit entity.
Both hosptial boards held public meetings Jan. 26. The motion for an MOU was rejected by the BRMC board, and in Princeton, a motion for an MOU died for lack of a second.
Tuesday’s special meeting was a step toward deciding what BRMC should do now, one member of the board said.
“It’s a continuation of that. We want to look and see where we are and where we need to move forward. It will require an executive session,” R.E. “Bob” Perkinson Jr., chairman of the BRMC board of directors said before Tuesday’s meeting.
When asked about the options BRMC may examine in the future, Perkinson said: “Everything is still on the table.”
The hospital still needs to look at all kinds of community partnerships, he said. In order to provide quality patient care, the hospital “still needs to look at all available alternatives just as any good business would do.”
Perkinson said the hospital’s goal was to ensure that patients received good care.
“What we want to do is to assure that we provide the best care in these changing times and assure that we will remain open and serve the community to the best of our ability,” he said.
When asked if any future options may involve the sale of BRMC, Perkinson said he did not know.
“We’ll consider all the alternatives to ensure the highest quality of patient care,” he said. “Wouldn’t rule it out, wouldn’t rule it in, either.”
Bob O’Neil, an attorney from Charleston, spoke to the board briefly about the differences between profit and non-profit organizations, the responsibilities of board members, and open meeting laws that apply to entities like BRMC.
For profit entities and non-profit entities are financed in different ways, O’Neil said. First, companies generating a profit can issue stock as a way to raise money and pay dividends. In contrast, non-profit organizations cannot issue stock; they depend on donations and grants, and any profits they generate go back into maintaining the organization.
In the subject of executive sessions and when they may be called, O’Neil referred to 16-5G-1 Declaration of legislative policy, in the West Virginia Code. Under one section of the same chapter, 16-5G-3, it is stated that “all meetings of a governing body of a hospital shall be open to the public.”
Another section, 16-5G-4 outlines exemptions. stating “This article does not prevent the governing body of a hospital from going into executive session.” It also stresses that “no official action shall be made in such executive session. An executive session may be held only upon a majority affirmative vote of the members present of the governing body of a hospital.”
The reasons for going into an executive session included” “To consider the work product of the hospital’s attorney or hospital administration.” Items such as a lawsuit or strategic planning would fall under this category, O’Neil said.
Another reason, according to the state code, for an executive session would be: “Matters involving or affecting the purchase, sale or lease of property, advance construction planning, the investment of public funds or other matters involving competition which, if made public, might adversely affect the financial or other interest of the state or any political subdivision or the hospital.”
The board voted to go into an executive session for the purpose of strategic planning. Perkinson said no actions would be taken after the executive session.
