The expansion of the number of members on the board of Haywood Regional Medical Center could signal a shift in majority, giving new additions to the board the upper hand.

The number of HRMC board members is supposed to increase from eight to 12 partly due to the overwhelming number of applications the county has received for the position.

Haywood County Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick approached the HRMC board at its April 29 meeting with a request to add more members. The county received 37 applications for two open positions, which normally attract one to two applicants. With such a wide field of qualified individuals to select from, Kirkpatrick said the time is ripe for expansion.

“We’d encourage you very much to expand the board so we can appoint new members from the pool we have, because there are so many,” he said.

“We are so fortunate to have this large group of good applicants. I have never seen this in all my years as commissioner. I have never seen this many good applicants. Every single person who has come before us would have something to contribute,” echoed Commissioner Mary Ann Enloe in an earlier interview.

Commissioners have been in agreement recently about the need to expand the board. Chairman Larry Ammons said hospital board members have an “overwhelming” amount of work cut out for them, which will require a variety of skills to tackle.

“We felt that you need a larger board so you have more skill sets in place to do all the work that has to be done,” he said.

Ammons also said the numerous committees currently in place that deal in specialized areas of hospital operations has the board “spread too thin.”

“You do a lot in committees and you will be able to be much closer to the issues that each committee does,” he said.

The expanded hospital board could mean big changes for HRMC. A shift in the board started in February, when chairman Dr. Nancy Freeman resigned her post following the emergence of the hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid crisis. Dr. Henry Nathan, who had criticized the previous hospital administration, took her place. Two more board members — Steve Sorrells and Mike Ray — are also at the end of their terms and are not seeking re-appointment. Those positions are likely to be filled by newcomers with a different view of how the hospital should be run. In total, the expanded board will consist of five old and nine new members — shifting the majority from those on the board when the current crisis erupted to the slate of newcomers.

The larger board would bring HRMC more in line with other hospitals. Many other systems have more than eight members, Kirkpatrick said. Board member Dick Steele used WestCare in Sylva and Bryson City as an example — it’s a smaller system but its board has 14 members.

The hospital board approved the addition of members but stopped short of determining the number of physicians an expanded board will require. Currently, one is required to sit on the board, though two — Steele and Nathan — actually do. The board decided to leave that question for another meeting.