FERRIDAY — The administration of Riverland Medical Center has decided to seek more information before asking its board to make any final decisions about the hospitals’ future.

The parish-owned hospital’s board had commissioned a feasibility study last fall to look at medical migration from the area and future development. Options the board wanted considered included if the hospital needed a new building at its current Ferriday location, renovations to the existing 50-year-old facility or a new location — or clinics — somewhere else in the parish.

“We wanted to see if we could afford to build a hospital, if we should and if the community needs it,” RMC board member Fred Marsalis said.

But when the feasibility study — completed by the LaBorde Group of Metairie — came back, RMC Administrator Billy Rucker said he felt it didn’t sufficiently answer the necessary questions, he said.

“It was a little too vague for what we wanted,” he said. “It didn’t give us enough in-depth information for the board to make a good decision.”

The hospital will seek to commission another firm to study the hospital and the area’s health care needs so the board can get a better picture of what might be needed in the future, Rucker said.

Two companies are being considered, and the study may be commissioned in the next three months, he said.

The initial study was commissioned after two of the hospitals’ physicians approached its administration about the facility’s future in August.

RMC opened in 1964 as Concordia Parish Hospital. It is partially funded through a one-fourth-of-one-percent sales tax, which is expected to generate $660,000 annually. The 10-year tax was renewed in November.

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.