Rural hospitals are struggling to survive in the new business environment called medicine. It's not just cuts in payment but that surely has not helped.
Medicare payments have been reduced by two points a year, a significant amount for a small hospital to absorb. Other problems, mostly involving money, include declining populations; disproportionate numbers of elderly and uninsured patients; the frequent need to pay doctors better than top dollar to get them to work in the hinterlands; the cost of expensive equipment that is necessary but frequently underused; the inability to provide lucrative specialty services and treatments; and an emphasis on emergency and urgent care, chronic money-losers are at play.
Losing its hospital is kind of like losing its heart in a small town. Life revolves around the hospital, it's always open. The "lunch crowd" spills out of the cafeteria and heads for the fast food places out by the "four lane." The wives of the local city officials makeup the volunteer corps who help the patient navigate the maze of hospital hallways. Smokers Anonymous, AA, Weight Watchers, and Parents Without Partners hold their weekly meetings in one of the classrooms. The night shift police officer can often be found in the ER just before dawn sipping coffee and trying to stay awake during those difficult pre-dawn hours. And, of course, everyone goes there for minor injuries, lab work, scans, and consults.
But it's not enough to keep the small town hospital alive. Across the country since 2010 over forty rural hospitals have closed and nearly three hundred are in trouble. A similar situation occurred in the late 1990s and was only resolved when the federal government changed rules to help the small hospitals stay in operation. Community hospitals in Texas have been particularly hard hit.
There's little the community or the individual can do. Supporting your local hospital is a given and not enough. The long arm of the federal health care system has a choke hold on these small facilities, really all hospitals. For hospitals on the edge of economic viability to survive the government will have to offer some financial assistance. Given current conditions and sympathies, that's not likely.
It's a shame.
Medicare payments have been reduced by two points a year, a significant amount for a small hospital to absorb. Other problems, mostly involving money, include declining populations; disproportionate numbers of elderly and uninsured patients; the frequent need to pay doctors better than top dollar to get them to work in the hinterlands; the cost of expensive equipment that is necessary but frequently underused; the inability to provide lucrative specialty services and treatments; and an emphasis on emergency and urgent care, chronic money-losers are at play.
Losing its hospital is kind of like losing its heart in a small town. Life revolves around the hospital, it's always open. The "lunch crowd" spills out of the cafeteria and heads for the fast food places out by the "four lane." The wives of the local city officials makeup the volunteer corps who help the patient navigate the maze of hospital hallways. Smokers Anonymous, AA, Weight Watchers, and Parents Without Partners hold their weekly meetings in one of the classrooms. The night shift police officer can often be found in the ER just before dawn sipping coffee and trying to stay awake during those difficult pre-dawn hours. And, of course, everyone goes there for minor injuries, lab work, scans, and consults.
But it's not enough to keep the small town hospital alive. Across the country since 2010 over forty rural hospitals have closed and nearly three hundred are in trouble. A similar situation occurred in the late 1990s and was only resolved when the federal government changed rules to help the small hospitals stay in operation. Community hospitals in Texas have been particularly hard hit.
There's little the community or the individual can do. Supporting your local hospital is a given and not enough. The long arm of the federal health care system has a choke hold on these small facilities, really all hospitals. For hospitals on the edge of economic viability to survive the government will have to offer some financial assistance. Given current conditions and sympathies, that's not likely.
It's a shame.
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