In a recent meeting, officials discussed the challenges facing OCH and Ochibaha County's healthcare system, highlighting a significant decline in inpatient admissions and surgeries over the past four years. Specifically, inpatient admissions dropped by 14.4% and surgeries by 9.2% from 2019 to 2023. This trend contrasts with data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which indicated a 7.6% increase in inpatient occupancy for similar hospitals in Mississippi during the same period.

The meeting also addressed the competitive landscape of urgent care facilities in the county, noting that while there are currently four urgent care centers, one affiliated with the university and three independent, a proposed urgent care center was abandoned due to perceived insufficient demand.

A pressing concern raised was the growing need for behavioral health services in the county, described as an epidemic that requires urgent attention from both OCH and local authorities. The board acknowledged that addressing these needs would be a significant undertaking.

Additionally, the management team at OCH was noted to be operating under considerable strain, with insufficient resources to analyze the profitability of various service lines due to limitations in their hospital information systems. This lack of data hampers the ability to make informed decisions about which services are financially viable.

The meeting concluded with a review of OCH's quality ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which have remained consistently low at two out of five stars over the past few years, indicating ongoing challenges in hospital performance and patient care quality.