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Greenwood Leflore Hospital informed employees Thursday it has delayed its anticipated closure to July 31 as negotiations over a potential transfer of operations to the University of Mississippi Medical Center continue.
The public hospital, which is owned by the City of Greenwood and Leflore County, first warned employees in April of potential mass layoffs as the hospital prepared to close June 15.
“Considering the best information available at this time, GLH now expects that it will cease operations and facilities on July 31, 2026,” Vice President of Administrative Services Key Britt said in a letter to employees obtained by Mississippi Today. “Such closure is expected to be permanent and will affect all employees.”
The warning complied with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires covered employers to provide 60 days’ notice before mass layoffs. The hospital said in April the WARN notice was sent in order to comply with federal law but did not guarantee closure.
Gary Marchand, a consultant advising the hospital’s board and former interim CEO, said in a statement the hospital’s financial position is stronger than officials projected in April. He said the closure of outpatient clinics in April is reducing expenses by about $275,000 a month.
“Every effort is being made to assure the ongoing availability of healthcare services for local residents,” Marchand said, noting that the hospital still provides emergency, inpatient, swing bed, surgical and outpatient services to patients.
Marchand declined to answer questions about whether negotiations with UMMC or another large healthcare system are ongoing.
The 25-bed Greenwood hospital serves an area of the Mississippi Delta with limited access to health care. In Leflore County, nearly 13% of residents do not have health insurance, compared with roughly 12% in Mississippi and 10% nationally, according to 2024 Census Bureau data.
The public hospital has faced serious financial challenges since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, repeatedly warning that its fragile condition could force it to close. The hospital has said its current financial turmoil stems from a dispute with Medicaid over paying back debt. That burden emerged due to overpayments from a program designed to support struggling hospitals that were calculated using old data.
To stay afloat, the hospital in April laid off 86 staff members, closed clinics and filed for bankruptcy. Hospital and local officials then said the moves were intended to ensure the hospital can continue to provide healthcare to the Delta region while it negotiated the possibility of a large health system taking over its services.
Greenwood City Council President Ronnie Stevenson said Thursday the notice extending the hospital’s expected closure timeline was necessary because negotiations with UMMC are ongoing.
“We’re still negotiating and working hard,” he said. “We still have a lot of moving targets to hit, but they all are possible. And I do feel good about it right now, where things are as far as Greenwood Leflore Hospital staying open for good.”
House Public Health and Welfare Chairman Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, said he has not been directly involved in the negotiations between Greenwood Leflore and UMMC. However, he said officials informed him that UMMC recently submitted a proposal to Greenwood Leflore for review.
Leflore County Board of Supervisors President Eric Mitchell confirmed that discussions with UMMC are ongoing but said he did not know their status.
This is not the only time the financially troubled hospital has filed a WARN Act notice in recent years.
The hospital also filed a WARN notice in April 2020, alerting staff of 120 potential temporary layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The facility again filed such a notice in October 2022, warning that 600 employees could be laid off that December. That notice came amidst another period of acute financial crisis. During that time, the hospital laid off as many as 80 employees and shuttered services, including its labor and delivery unit. The hospital was in negotiations with the University of Mississippi Medical Center over a possible takeover, but those conversations stalled in November 2022.
This year’s April notice reflects a similar pattern of events. Before the notice, Greenwood hospital officials announced permanent lay offs of nearly a fifth of its workforce and closed several service lines to prepare to transfer operations to a larger health system or potentially close.
Marchand said Thursday there are no plans to extend the WARN notice again.
