VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish Police Jury expressed tentative support for a project to update Riverland Medical Center — with one caveat.

It has to remain in Ferriday.

The police jury met with the RMC board Monday evening to find out what the hospital board is planning for the future. The RMC board operates independently but is appointed by the police jury.

Jury President Melvin Ferrington said the jurors have heard the hospital is exploring options for its future, but only knew what they had heard on the radio, read in newspapers and heard on the street.

Ferrington said the jury tries to stay out of the business of its appointed boards as much as possible, but interest in the parish has been too high for the jury not to know what is happening.

“We are not in disagreement that something needs to be done,” he said. “(But) people call us and ask us what is going on, and we say, ‘We don’t know,’ and we are supposed to be the governing board of this parish.”

RMC board chairman Jim Graves told the jury it was his fault the lines of communication have not been as open as they could have.

But Graves also reiterated the point board members have made in recent weeks —nothing has been decided, but something has to be done.

“We don’t have an obligation to the Vidalia or Ferriday, we have an obligation to the parish as a whole, to provide health care for it,” he said.

Graves said RMC’s infrastructure can’t house new equipment and in some cases the equipment is so old, “if we don’t find a couple of parts in a junkyard we are out of business.”

Dr. Carrie Bonomo, a pediatrician who represents the hospital’s medical staff on RMC’s board, said the hospital’s infrastructure was outdated when her mother served as an obstetrician there in the 1990s.

“We have to ship patients out routinely because there are things we can’t do,” she said.

The medical staff is dedicated to the hospital and has no plans to go anywhere, Bonomo said, but as older doctors approach retirement the hospital will need to be able to recruit new doctors.

“The hospital functions, but we could do a better job if it was updated,” she said. “We could do better if we could keep the patients here, but the way the hospital is right now it is not possible.”

Graves said the hospital board had commissioned a study of the area medical market to determine what is best for Riverland’s future, but the information was no good because it did not take into account the ongoing consolidation of Natchez Regional Medical Center and Natchez Community Center.

The board has heard two proposals for a second study, but no one has been hired to write a feasibility study report, he said.

“We have 20 percent of the (hospital) business in the parish,” Graves said. “If we can capture 20 percent more, we could be off to the races.”

Everything the board is considering is about keeping the hospital viable, he said.

“The last thing we want is another small town with a big, empty hospital,” Graves said.

Attorney Jack Stolier, who attended with the RMC board, said while no plans have been made the likely funding agency for any expansion at RMC will be the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which requires studies before agreeing to financing a project.

“We can’t ask for it if we haven’t studied it,” Stolier said.

None of the jurors disputed the hospital representatives, saying they were instead concerned with keeping the hospital in Ferriday and how any expansion might be funded.

Juror Jimmy Jernigan questioned why a move might even be considered when the hospital already owns land at its current location.

“We have 43 acres of land right there, centrally located,” he said. “Less than 10 percent of the people at that hospital are from Vidalia, so the other 90 percent are coming from somewhere else.”

Ferrington said when the hospital’s location was chosen because it was the central hub for the parish in the early 1960s.

“The hub is still in the same location — as I see it — as it was in 1961,” he said.

Ferrington said the jury had no problem pledging support for renovating or building a new hospital if it stayed at that location.

Ferriday Alderman Johnnie Brown also addressed the jury and the hospital board at the meeting, asking the hospital board to consider re-opening an OB-GYN practice in Ferriday. The RMC birthing center was closed in the mid-2000s.

“It seems awkward to me to give up the opportunity for our children to be born in Louisiana,” Brown said.

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.