'Who's going to take care of these people

a medical facility had already transferred out most of its patients and lost half its staff when the CEO called a meeting to take inventory of what was left. team crammed into Tina Steele's office at Fairfax Community Hospital, Where the air conditioning was no longer working and the application had just been shut off for nonpayment,I want number one good news, Steele cited, And she told them a food bank would make deliveries to the hospital and Dollar General would donate office supplies online,So how passionate are we, One employee asked. "the money do we have in the bank,something like $12,000, Steele explained,And how many years will that last us,Under normal circumstances, Steele posed. She looked down at a chart on her desk and ran sets of rules in her head. "Probably a couple, She thought. "what about a day at most,The staff had been fending off closure hour by hour for the past a while, Ever since debt for the 15 bed hospital surpassed $1million and its outside ownership group created bankruptcy, Beginning a crisis in Fairfax that has grown to become familiar across much of rural America. 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 in america into what experts now call "health risk zones, And Fairfax was on the verge of becoming the latest. The emergency room was down to its final four tanks of oxygen. The nursing staff was out of basic delivers such as snakebite antivenin and strep tests. Hospital employees had not received paychecks for the past 11 weeks and counting.The only reason a healthcare facility had been able to stay open at all was that about 30 employees continued showing up to work without pay, Increasing their hours to fill empty shifts and essentially donating time to a medical facility, gratitude what was at stake. a few of them had been born or had given birth at Fairfax Community. Several others had been stabilized and treated in the er after heart attacks or accidents. it has no other hospital within 30 miles of two lane roads and prairie in sprawling Osage County, Which meant Fairfax Community was the only lifeline in a part of the country that increasingly needed rescuing,If we are really not open, Where do men and women go, Asked your physician assistant, for the dozens of patients he treated each month in the ER, involves some in critical condition after drug overdoses, Falls from ponies, Oil field unfortunate occurances or car crashes,They'll surf to the cemetery, Another member of staff said. "If we are really not here, they will don't have time. They'll die and with this hospital,We have no stores, Steele announced. "We do not have anything. How extended can we provide quality care,fred Graham, With 41 years as a physician, Is the longest serving member of the Fairfax Community Hospital staff.everyone in the room turned, As many of them did, To the longest serving member of the hospital staff James Graham, 67. He had worked as a physician at Fairfax Community for 41 years, Writing his cellphone number atop new medications, Making rounds while you're on dialysis through two kidney transplants, And sometimes hand delivering medication to indigent patients out the window of his passenger truck. For high of his career, He had been on call as the only doctor in a town where the demand for medical care continued to rise: first few years poverty climbing up above 30percent. Accidental deaths doubling in the last decade. boosting rates of diabetes, ailment, drug addiction and obesity.Graham had been an honorary pallbearer at higher than 160 of his patients' funerals, Watching the cemetery expand as Fairfax's number of people declined from almost 2,000 to lower than 1,300 through 40 numerous attrition. a medical facility remained the area's largest employer, And the town had sunk over fifty percent of its annual budget into legal fees to file a lawsuit against the hospital's ownership company, Hoping to retake influence over Fairfax Community. There was still a chance the town could save a healthcare facility in some form by partnering with a new management company, If the bankruptcy court will allow it. Fairfax's vice mayor had promised employees he would come by at the end of the week to deliver an update, And possibly even paychecks if new management could be found,Maybe we'll get best part, Graham told the staff. "But we're ready for a miracle, And if some of you do not want to keep waiting and working for free, You can vanish now and nobody will blame you,He looked in your room as his co workers stood in place. A call came by hospital's intercom. "medical attention up front, A front desk said. Graham waited need to consider second, Until the silence sounded to him like a conclusion,all right, he was quoted saying, Moving toward the emergency room. "Let's keep the doors open until someone tells us we simply cannot,well being assistant Gari Owens, quit, conditions to suture a gash that Lucian McKinney, 15, <a href=https://charmdatescamreviews.wordpress.com/tag/hot-russian-women/>Charmdate scam reviews</a> undergone in a fall while fishing. The scene was captured April 18 at Fairfax Community Hospital at the height of the hospital's funding crisis.While making rounds at a senior care option in Fairfax, medical doctor James Graham, 67, Checks on hawaiian for resident ) Betty Perky, 84.A tip collection at Treat's Coffee in Fairfax symbolizes the financial crisis that has gripped the rural Oklahoma hospital and many similar facilities across the us,our great country. In many a rural network, The struggling local hospital is the sole source of medical for many miles around.pinnacle: personal doctor assistant Gari Owens, put, cooks to suture a gash that Lucian McKinney, 15, suffered in a fall while fishing. The scene was captured April 18 at Fairfax Community Hospital at the height of the hospital's funding crisis. still left: While making rounds at a senior care centre in Fairfax, medical doctor James Graham, 67, Checks on resident in town Betty Perky, 84. exact: A tip collection at Treat's Coffee in Fairfax symbolizes the financial crisis that has gripped the rural Oklahoma hospital and many similar facilities across north america. jurisdictions. Patients started all over Northern Oklahoma, moving through cattle farms and across rolling prairie, typically driving up to an hour to reach their closest full service hospital. It was a single story building about large an average elementary school. as a famous flag flew above the open doorway into the main lobby, Where the reception staff greeted most patients by first name on sight,A small marketplace is only as healthy as its hospital, Read one sign near the doorway, But nowadays, That matrimony in Fairfax and hundreds of other small towns had gone from symbiotic to ominous. Rural America needed more emergency care than previously. Its hospitals were less equipped than ever to offer it.yourself decade, emergency room visits to America's more than 2,000 rural hospitals increased by very 60percent, Even as those hospitals began to collapse under doctor shortages and historically low operating margins. Hospitals like Fairfax Community treat patients that are on average six years older and 40percent poorer as opposed to runners in urban hospitals, Which means rural hospitals have suffered disproportionately from government cuts to Medicaid and Medicare repayment rates. They also treat a higher portion of uninsured patients, leading to unpaid bills and rising debts. A record 46percent of rural hospitals lost money last year. More than 400 are indexed by health officials as being at "riskly of imminent failure, Hundreds more have cut services or turned over control to outside ownership groups so as to stave off closure.leading to in Fairfax, Graham gives shuttered businessess, Silent indicators of the towns steady decline.Fairfax Community had survived a previous bankruptcy in 2011 and then passed through four outside ownership groups before being owned in 2016 by EmpowerHMS, A Florida company that operated more than a dozen rural hospitals across the Midwest. the corporation promoted itself as "A savior for seeking rural hospitals, But within months of absorbing, Its corporate office had begun defaulting on some of Fairfax Community's bills and cutting its spending plan. Eventually, Four of the business's hospitals had shut down and nine more had entered bankruptcy, such as Fairfax. It could no longer afford in order to X rays or CT scans. No more remote checking for patients with irregular heartbeats. treats blood tests.and now in came Dr. Graham, A day after workers meeting, Walking up to Steele in the hallway and waving another past due bill,I hate to add another problem to your list, But one such big one, he said, Handing her a letter. It said his malpractice insurance was several weeks overdue. He had 15 days to pay at the minimum $1,000 on into your market, Or he would lose his insurance and his legal right to rehearse medicine in Oklahoma.