Texas County Commission Reject’s Lease Option

In a unanimous 3-0 vote, the Texas County Board of County Commissioners on Thursday morning denied the Memorial Hospital of Texas County Board of Control’s recommendation to pursue the hospital lease option.

The Board of Control voted 4-3 on Tuesday night to recommend the county commission pursue the lease-only option and not the hospital management option. The board has heard from several hospital leasing and management companies over the last several months to find out how to best fix the hospital’s dire financial situation. Through February, the hospital has shown a net loss of just under $2 million for the current fiscal year.

It took under five minutes for the commissioners to dismiss the recommendation.

Commissioner Ted Keeling said the commission hasn’t seen anything yet to show favor to either option.

"I’m not in favor of leasing the hospital and I’m sure not in favor of approving to lease the hospital with no options and nothing on paper. We’ve had no offers, we’ve had no guarantees of anything," Keeling said. "I would like to see the hospital have a chance go a different direction and all come together as a team. And I believe they can if everybody is willing to work together and put their personal differences aside."

Keeling also said he would like to see an evaluation from Community Hospital Corporation of Plano, Texas, who presented to the Board of Control on Tuesday night.

Every company who has presented to the Board of Control since January has told the board that all facets — the board, administration and medical staff — have to work together to right the sinking ship, so to speak. In a letter last month, the medical staff recommended the board choose NewLight, a hospital management company out of Texas.

When the board voted Tuesday to recommend the lease option, at least two physicians — Dr. Martin Bautista and Dr. Jeffrey Lim — resigned their staff positions. They now have "courtesy privileges."