Mississippi Today
Greenwood Leflore Hospital goes up for lease, again

Last summer, Greenwood Leflore Hospital was on the brink of closure and up for lease.
Now, despite applying for grants from the Legislature, closing several service lines and requesting a more lucrative hospital designation, the hospital is back to square one: it’s going up for lease again.
Greenwood’s hospital is co-owned by the city and county and has long been plagued with financial struggles, like many of Mississippi’s rural hospitals. During the pandemic, the hospital’s finances went from bad to worse, as costs went up and payments did not.
In an effort to stay open, Greenwood Leflore has closed several departments and services, including neurosurgery, urology and inpatient dialysis. Most recently, it shuttered its labor and delivery department and intensive care unit.
Interim CEO Gary Marchand told Mississippi Today in February that the hospital was running out of money and months away from closure.
However, thanks to a credit line increase from its owners and the passage of a statewide hospital grant program, Marchand said in April that the hospital would stay open until at least 2024.
In the meantime, in order to make the hospital more financially viable, leaders applied for Greenwood Leflore Hospital, which is currently classified as an acute care facility, to be converted to a critical access hospital. Critical access hospitals are reimbursed by Medicare at a higher rate.
But the hospital’s application has not yet been approved, and approval isn’t guaranteed — critical access hospitals must be located 35 miles from the nearest hospital, and South Sunflower County Hospital in Indianola is 28 miles away.
Marchand is hoping for a waiver because of transportation challenges in the Delta, but it could be months before he gets an answer from the federal government.

Until final approval, Marchand said the hospital needs a “plan B” to stay open.
“From Greenwood Hospital’s perspective, plan A is to get critical access hospital status and obtain long-term viability,” he said. “I think the owners … just wanted a backup plan.”
Hospital leaders are publishing an RFP, or request for proposal, on Aug. 29 in the local paper, the Greenwood Commonwealth, to solicit bidders to take over the hospital. This time around, the RFP includes an option to buy the hospital outright, not just lease it.
Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams said she’s already heard from several “entities as far as California” about their interest in the hospital.
The space went up for lease last year, and the hospital was in discussions with the University of Mississippi Medical Center to lease the facility. But mere days before the deal was expected to be finalized, UMMC pulled out. A UMMC leader only cited “health care economics” as a reason.
At the time, Greenwood Leflore Hospital reportedly owed Medicaid millions in advance payments it got when the pandemic began, and UMMC did not want to take on those debts.
According to Marchand, an RFP for a lease with an option to purchase has a relatively short time frame for completion, which is why leaders went with that option last year — the hospital’s situation was dire.
Now, Greenwood Leflore Hospital can afford a little more time — though not much more. Marchand declined to get into specifics about the hospital’s finances.
“The hospital is still struggling,” McAdams said. “The city and county had to go in and do the $10 million line of credit so we could get through this process of applying for critical access without them having to worry every month if they were going to be able to meet payroll or not.”
According to a Greenwood Commonwealth article from Aug. 16, a consultant hired to advise community leaders about the hospital suggested that Greenwood Leflore Hospital cut administrative pay and base its physician pay on productivity.
Marchand said he was not considering making those changes.
Greenwood hasn’t gotten the money it was promised from the Legislature yet — because the grant money is coming from pandemic relief funds and not the state general fund, many hospitals have reported difficulties getting their hands on their allotted money and will only be able to claim part of it.
Greenwood was granted a little under a million. As of this week, they’ve received $0, according to Marchand.
“To my knowledge, they haven’t paid a single hospital,” he said.
No hospital has gotten that money yet, confirmed Kris Adcock, senior deputy at the Mississippi State Health Department. It’s not clear when it’ll be disbursed.
McAdams said hospital leaders are pursuing both an RFP and critical access designation, not one over the other, exhausting all options to ensure the facility’s survival.
“Every community needs a hospital,” she said. “We serve not only Greenwood but all the communities around us … There are a lot of people here who can’t go to Jackson. They can’t even get to Grenada. They need access to this hospital.
“Truly, it’s terrible, but we are not the only hospital struggling here. All of our community hospitals, especially in the Delta, are struggling with the same problem.”
One report puts nearly half of the state’s rural hospitals at risk of closure. In rural Mississippi, these closures could be especially devastating, both for these communities’ economic livelihood and Mississippians’ wellbeing.
McAdams said that without Medicaid expansion, the situation is only getting worse. Republican state leaders have steadfastly opposed expanding Medicaid to the working poor, despite support from the majority of Mississippians.
It’s essential that its hospital status is either changed or the facility is bought, Marchand said, and the window in which Greenwood Leflore Hospital can figure out a solution is quickly closing.
“I don’t think that we can cut any more service lines and be of service to this community,” he said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday
Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.
“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”
The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.



“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”
The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.
“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”
NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.




This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says
Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed.
They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them.
Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother.
“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.”
Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023.
Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board.
The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition.
A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities.
Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board.
In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties.
The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more.
From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths.
“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said.
Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.
A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents.
Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed.
In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.
Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records.
Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson.
Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.
He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media.
Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary.
Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.
“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
Court to rule on DeSoto County Senate districts with special elections looming
A federal three-judge panel will rule in coming days on how political power in northwest Mississippi will be allocated in the state Senate and whether any incumbents in the DeSoto County area might have to campaign against each other in November special elections.
The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials last week to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice.
The latest map proposed by the all-Republican State Board of Election Commissioners tweaked only four Senate districts in northwest Mississippi and does not pit any incumbent senators against each other.
The state’s proposal would keep the Senate districts currently held by Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, in majority-white districts.
But it makes Sen. David Parker’s district a slightly majority-Black district. Parker, a white Republican from Olive Branch, would run in a district with a 50.1% black voting-age population, according to court documents.
The proposal also maintains the district held by Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, as a majority-Black district, although it reduces the Black voting age population from 61% to 53%.
Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch comprise the State Board of Election Commissioners. Reeves and Watson voted to approve the plan. But Watson, according to meeting documents, expressed a wish that the state had more time to consider different proposals.
Fitch did not attend the meeting, but Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb attended in her place. Lipscomb voted against the map, although it is unclear why. Fitch’s office declined to comment on why she voted against the map because it involves pending litigation.
The reason for redrawing the districts is that the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters in the state sued Mississippi officials for drawing legislative districts in a way that dilutes Black voting power.
The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, are likely to object to the state’s newest proposal, and they have until April 29 to file an objection with the court
The plaintiffs have put forward two alternative proposals for the area in the event the judges rule against the state’s plans.
The first option would place McLendon and Blackwell in the same district, and the other would place McLendon and Jackson in the same district.
It is unclear when the panel of judges will issue a ruling on the state’s plan, but they will not issue a ruling until the plaintiffs file their remaining court documents next week.
While the November election is roughly six months away, changing legislative districts across counties and precincts is technical work, and local election officials need time to prepare for the races.
The judges have not yet ruled on the full elections calendar, but U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick said at a hearing earlier this month that the panel was committed have the elections in November.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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