Oklahoma hospital's struggles illustrate dire situation of many rural hospitals, show local residents' dedication

A tip jar to help pay employees shows the town's dedication to its hospital. (Washington Post photo by Michael Williamson)

A rural Oklahoma town's battle to save its hospital illustrates the dire situation so many rural hospitals are in these days. "More than 100 of the country’s remote hospitals have gone 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," Eli Saslow reports for The Washington Post.

Fairfax Community Hospital was once one of the state's top-ranked rural health care facilities, but when local oil wells dried up and farmers got hit by drought, the town's fortunes declined, and with them, the 15-bed hospital. It survived a 2011 bankruptcy and a string of owners, and was purchased in 2016 by Florida-based EmpowerHMS, which owned more than a dozen Midwestern rural hospitals. "The company promoted itself as 'a savior for struggling rural hospitals,' but within months of taking over, its corporate office had begun defaulting on some of Fairfax Community’s bills and cutting its spending budget, Saslow reports. "Eventually, four of the company’s hospitals had shut down and nine more had entered bankruptcy, including Fairfax."

Fairfax, Okla. (Wikipedia map)

The hospital is the area's largest employer, so leaders in Fairfax are fighting hard to save it. The town spent "more than half its annual budget on legal fees to sue the hospital's owner, in a bid to retake control of the hospital. If the town could do that, there was a chance it could save the hospital by partnering with a new management company," Saslow reports. While the hospital's ownership was tied up in court, hospital employees struggled to keep the hospital's doors open. Employees had been working without pay for the past 11 weeks, computer software was shut down for non-payment, and staff was running low on essential supplies, Saslow reports.

Some hospital staff quit because they couldn't afford to keep volunteering, but others stuck with it, some working 16-hour shifts, hoping for good news from the courts, Saslow reports. "If we aren’t open, where do these people go?" asked a physician assistant. "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 hospital's ownership and management remains tied up in court, and because of that, paychecks are still weeks away at best. The town's vice-mayor, Charlie Cartwright, advised the hospital to remain open as an emergency room only, with a nurse, a doctor and an aide to operate it. Other patients would be transferred out, and that way, the hospital could stay open as it waited for a resolution without incurring the costly fees associated with completely closing, Saslow reports.