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No Mercy

Exploring what happens when the closure of one beloved rural hospital disrupts a community’s health care, economy and equilibrium.

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No Mercy

What Comes Next?

After depending on the local hospital for more than a century, Fort Scott, Kan., residents now are trying to cope with life without it.

No Mercy

Have Cancer, Must Travel

Patients left in the lurch after hospital closes.

No Mercy

Emergency Care

Delays cost patients dearly.

No Mercy

Listen

After its hospital closes, a pioneer Kansas town searches for what comes next.

No Mercy

Coping With Loss

A year later.

A photo of a hospital flying its flags at half staff.

Listen to ‘Tradeoffs’: How the Loss of a Rural Hospital Compounds the Collapse of Care

January 5, 2024 KFF Health News Original

‘No Mercy’ Bonus Episodes: More From Fort Scott, Kansas

October 22, 2021 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

‘No Mercy’ Chapter 7: After a Rural Town Loses Hospital, Is a Health Clinic Enough?

November 10, 2020 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

‘No Mercy’ Chapter 6: Trickle-Down Heartache Reaches the Next Generation in a Rural Town With No Hospital

November 3, 2020 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

KHN on the Air This Week

October 30, 2020 KFF Health News Original

‘No Mercy’ Chapter 5: With Rural Hospital Gone, Cancer Care Means a Daylong Trek

October 27, 2020 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

‘No Mercy’ Chapter 4: So, 2 Nuns Step Off a Train in Kansas … A Hospital’s Origin Story

October 20, 2020 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

‘No Mercy’ Chapter 3: Patchwork of Urgent Care Frays After a Rural Hospital Closes

October 13, 2020 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

‘No Mercy’ Chapter 2: Unimaginable, After a Century, That Their Hospital Would Close

October 6, 2020 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

‘No Mercy’ Explores the Fallout After a Small Town Loses Its Hospital

September 29, 2020 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

Air Ambulances Woo Rural Consumers With Memberships That May Leave Them Hanging

September 16, 2019 By Sarah Jane Tribble KFF Health News Original

Podcast

Where It Hurts

Sep 29

Each season “Where It Hurts” takes you to an overlooked part of the country to explore cracks in the American health system that leave people frustrated — and without the care they need. For Season One host and investigative reporter Sarah Jane Tribble returns home to southeastern Kansas to document the fallout when a small town loses its only hospital.

No Mercy Facebook Group

As Fort Scott deals with the trauma of losing a beloved institution, deeper national questions underlie the struggle: Do small, rural communities need a traditional hospital at all? And if not, how will they get the health care they need?

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