Rural Hospitals Across Tennessee Are Collapsing Leaving The Most Vulnerable Residents Stranded In Health Deserts
Mounting debt and other financial worries have been weighing heavily on rural hospitals across the country forcing them to close their doors. But what do the towns do when their hospitals shut down? USA Today investigates. Hospital closure news comes out of Kansas, as well.
Nashville Tennessean:
Tennessee Rural Hospitals Are Dying. Welcome To Life In Ducktown
For 62 years, Copper Basin Medical Center, an independently owned hospital with about 25 beds, served Ducktown, Copperhill and the other old mining communities of Polk County, which is home to 17,000 people in Tennessee’s southeastern corner. But mounting debt pushed Copper Basin to close its doors for the final time 16 months ago, becoming one of the growing number of casualties in an ongoing struggle to maintain rural hospitals throughout the state and the nation as a whole. As health care has become more expensive and health insurance lags, many rural hospitals have been unable to pay their bills, forcing them to shrink or close, creating health care deserts in poor, far-flung towns where residents are often the most vulnerable. (Kelman, 2/14)
KCUR:
A Rural Kansas Hospital Owned By A Kansas City-Based Company Closes Abruptly
Oswego Community Hospital, a 12-bed critical access hospital in southeast Kansas, abruptly closed down on Thursday, citing insufficient revenue to cover its operating expenses. The hospital’s board released a statement saying the hospital had “weathered low patient volumes; high number of uninsured patients; low reimbursement rates; difficulty in getting payment from private insurance providers; low Medicaid and Medicare rates; and the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid.” (Margolies, 2/14)
Kansas City Star:
Oswego Hospital Closes After EmpowerHMS Sells To IHealthcare
The hospital board said the 12-bed facility in southeast Kansas closed due to struggles no different than those at other rural hospitals around the country. “We have weathered low patient volumes, high numbers of uninsured patients, low reimbursement rates, difficulty in getting payment from private insurance providers, low Medicaid and Medicare rates, and the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid,” the statement read. “The trickle of low revenue stream we have generated has not been enough to cover payroll, let alone to meet all of the other costly expenses needed to operate and maintain a hospital.” (Marso, 2/14)
In other hospital news —
The Washington Post:
Safety At St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital Questioned After Brutal Attack On Nurse
A patient’s brutal attack on a nurse at a D.C. government psychiatric hospital has renewed calls for increased security at the facility, with staff and union representatives saying hospital managers have been slow to respond to repeated requests for safer working conditions. The Jan. 13 incident at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington — disclosed this week at a routine oversight hearing by the D.C. Council’s Health Committee — left a 71-year-old nurse with a badly beaten face and two fractured ribs after a male patient escaped from his restraints and clubbed her repeatedly with a telephone. (Jamison, 2/14)
Modern Healthcare:
Quality Of Care Isn't Better At Physician-Employed Hospitals, Study Shows
Hospitals that employ physicians don't perform any better than other hospitals on certain quality measures, according to a new study. The study, recently in the journal Medical Care Research and Review, also found that hospitals in concentrated markets reported lower patient satisfaction scores. ...To get the results, the study assessed the performance of 4,438 hospitals on 29 quality measures reported on Hospital Compare from 2008 to 2015. The authors found hospitals with employed physicians performed better on just eight of the 29 quality measures and there was no difference in readmission rates between physician-employed hospitals and other hospitals. (Castellucci, 2/13)
