Financially Crippled Hospitals In Rural America Are Fending Off Closure Hour-By-Hour
More than 100 of the country’s remote hospitals went broke and then closed in the past decade, turning some of the most impoverished parts of the United States into what experts now call “health-hazard zones." “If we aren’t open, where do these people go?” asked one physician assistant at a troubled hospital. “They’ll go to the cemetery,” another employee said. “If we’re not here, these people don’t have time. They’ll die along with this hospital.”
The Washington Post:
‘Who’s Going To Take Care Of These People?’
The hospital had already transferred out most of its patients and lost half its staff when the CEO called a meeting to take inventory of what was left. Employees crammed into Tina Steele’s office at Fairfax Community Hospital, where the air conditioning was no longer working and the computer software had just been shut off for nonpayment. “I want to start with good news,” Steele said, and she told them a food bank would make deliveries to the hospital and Dollar General would donate office supplies. “So how desperate are we?” one employee asked. “How much money do we have in the bank?” (Saslow, 5/11)
In other news on hospitals and health systems —
Modern Healthcare:
Health Systems Are Working To Live Up To Their Name
U.S. hospital chains call themselves “health systems.” But how many really are? Hospitals have been rapidly consolidating across the country into large not-for-profit and for-profit companies containing dozens of hospitals and hundreds of clinics and other care sites in multiple states. But that doesn’t necessarily make them what experts consider an organized system of care. (Meyer and Kacik, 5/11)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Hospitals Divert Ambulances When Incoming Patients More Likely Poor
Hospitals that temporarily shut their doors to ambulances have long argued the decision is driven purely by volume, so sick patients don't have to endure long waits for care in crowded emergency rooms. But a new study has uncovered evidence of another motive for the practice: Hospitals may be turning away ambulances for financial reasons by avoiding treating patients with government health insurance or no coverage at all. (Diedrich, 5/13)
