Sizeable financial loss at OMC

Another poor month for the bottom line at the Oconee Medical Center. The hospital’s board of directors last night accepted without comment reports of hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses above revenue. The March loss of $636,258 was chalked off to an ongoing decline in the number of patients spending the night in the hospital. For March, the average patients amounted to 52 a day. The hospital is licensed for 169 patient beds. “It’s a very challenging time for community hospitals,” said Hunter Kome, Oconee’s chief operating officer. Meantime, OMC remains on a path to be acquired by the Greenville Health System. The affiliation in the form of a long-term lease is scheduled to go to a vote by the boards of both health care institutions in late June.