FERRIDAY — Riverland Medical Center’s board could make a decision by the end of the month if the parish-owned hospital will be replaced with a new facility.

The hospital began a feasibility study approximately a week ago to determine its needs for the future, Riverland Medical Center Administrator Billy Rucker said.

“We are doing an economic feasibility study that will look at the impact it will have on a site, the impact it will have as far as continued growth is concerned, and on doctor, staff and patient retention,” he said.

“We’re taking an overall, broad view of it.”

Rucker said the he hoped to call a meeting of the board as quickly as possible after the study was finished.

The anticipated end date for the study to be completed is Oct. 25, he said.

The feasibility found its onus in August, when two of the hospital’s doctors approached the board about the possibility of doing the study at the parish-owned health care facility.

Options mentioned at the time included a new location, new hospital branches or a new facility at the hospital’s current campus. Firm decisions are awaiting the study’s finish.

Rucker said the hospital has not received an estimate of what any new option might cost at this time.

Riverland Medical Center — a 25-bed critical access hospital that offers general surgery — opened in 1964 as the Concordia Parish Hospital.

The hospital is aging and needs significant updates if the area is to continue receiving excellent health care, Rucker said.

“We have got to go forward for the future,” he said. “It is not my hospital, it is the people’s hospital, and I hope to leave something for my kids and my grandkids, to be proud of.”

Riverland’s board operates as an independent sub-body of the Concordia Parish Police Jury. Revenue collections and a 10-year renewal tax, which generates approximately $630,000 annually, fund the hospital.

As a critical access hospital — a designation given by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — Riverland has no more than 25 inpatient beds, the annual average length of stay for acute care inpatient treatment is no more than 96 hours, it offers 24-hour, 7-day-a-week emergency care and being located in a rural area.

Critical access hospitals are given cost-based reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid, while hospitals that don’t qualify for such — including Natchez Regional Medical Center and Natchez Community Hospital — are reimbursed on standard fixed rates.

RMC has a budget of $17.1 million for the current fiscal year.