The Petersburg Medical Center board of directors passed a motion on Sept. 19 to invest up to $1.5 million at the CFO and CEO’s discretion in bonds and treasuries.

The decision came at the suggestion of hospital CFO Doran Hammett. He said that PMC’s operating cash in an account at First Bank was increasing at a rate of .5 percent in interest per month, but the bank was only crediting the hospital a sufficient amount to offset bank charges.

“Over the last 13 months, we earned almost $11,000 in excess of our bank charges, and that’s money that we did not get,” said Hammett at the b...