Dateline: July 25, 2002

Memphis hospital closing its doors

By Carrie Helms, Clarendon Enterprise 

Hall County Hospital will be closing its doors at midnight August 4, 2002, after struggling with declining income for years.

The hospital, which has been in operation since 1964, declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy in October of 2001 but has been unable to regain control of its finances.  The facility was in such dire straits that board members took out personal loans totaling almost $100,000 to meet payroll expenses.

A major issue for the hospital has been reduced Medicare reimbursements.

“The hospital sees only three or four patients per month,” interim hospital CEO Ann Fagan-Cook said. “Seventy-two percent of all our patients are on Medicare.”

In March, the hospital changed to a new Medicare payment plan called critical access, but the switch happened too late.

“The process takes time,” Fagan-Cook said. “When you switch to a different plan, you have to get all new numbers, and that can sometimes take up to a month just to apply.”

The hospital district expects to see results from the plan change in a payment of up to $200,000 in November, which may be enough to re-open.

“We are still under bankruptcy, so everything has to be approved before we can re-open,” Fagan-Cook said, “but we expect to be able to re-open within a year.”

In the meantime, the rural health clinic in Memphis will remain in operation, and the hospital district is looking at the possibility of an urgent care clinic.

“An urgent care clinic is like an emergency room,” Fagan-Cook said.  “Once we get proper licensing, we should be able to open in about 90 days.”

For patients in Donley County, hospital records will still be available after the hospital closes.