Here are four things to know:
1. The hospital can no longer sustain its $13 million of mortgage debt, and it has been paying less than its full mortgage since 2020.
2. St. Mark’s transitioned to Rural Emergency Hospital designation in February to offset the mortgage debt, along with revenue declines and expense increases, according to an Oct. 4 news release from the hospital.
3. In January, the hospital cut half of its staff and several services. Despite Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission granting payments of $187,500 per quarter for six quarters to support rural emergency hospitals and the La Grange Economic Development Corporation pledging $500,000, it was still not enough to save the hospital.
4. “Closure is certainly not the outcome that anyone wanted for our community, the staff or their families. But without the additional local funding support HCOE was seeking, the hospital is out of options,” Dudley Piland, the hospital’s board chair, said in the release.
