The hospital cited low patient volumes, inflating costs, and low reimbursement rates, including lack of Medicaid expansion, as driving the closure, according to a news release on the hospital’s website.
“It is an unfortunate reality in today’s rural healthcare climate that hospitals are having to closely look at which services they are financially able to continue to provide,” the hospital’s administrator, Brad Lowery, said in the release. “This decision was not made lightly, as we feel we have a very strong surgical team. Significant time and resources have gone in to trying to sustain the service, but we simply don’t have the necessary volume to support it at this time.”
The hospital is making sure outpatient surgery opportunities are available locally through visiting specialists, such as the D.W. McMillan Memorial Hospital in Brewton, Ala., according to the release.
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