Rural health woes

Grass grows in the cracks in the concrete of the ambulance bay.

Financial troubles forced the hospital to file for bankruptcy in October 2001 with nearly $2 million of debt.

The hospital locked its doors for good in August 2002.

While there is still a family physician in town, residents must drive 30 miles to Childress to find the nearest hospital.

Pat Carson, mayor of Turkey, in the southwest corner of Hall County, called rural health care a struggle for towns such as his, with about 500 people.

Few options are present for residents who fall ill.

"They just get over it or wait till it becomes a bigger problem," Carson said.

But the problems with the lack of health care in Hall County plague many other rural Panhandle communities.

Towns are often too small to support a hospital or doctor, and one or both could leave town.

Residents drive 30 to 45 miles or farther to see a doctor and may do without care because of the inconvenience.

Hospital districts pour resources into maintaining and upgrading ambulance services as a way to provide quality emergency care when needed.

Not having a viable health-care provider in the area hurts many small towns.

"As you get older, you have to be concerned about health care," Carson said. "Those people have to think long and hard about moving to a community where they have to drive 45 miles to the nearest hospital."

Why it's important

John Henderson, chief administrator at Childress Regional Medical Center, said losing a hospital signals an end to a community. He said it's hard to convince a young family to move to a town where they have to drive 120 miles to deliver a baby.

"I don't see any scenario on how a community can expect to grow without a local hospital," Henderson said.

Rush Pierce, interim regional dean of the Texas Tech University School of Medicine in Amarillo, said the issue of accessing health care in rural areas will only become bigger.

The population is aging and becoming less mobile. Pierce said having a doctor nearby is more critical.

Health care and economic development go hand in hand, said Don McBeth, director of Rural Health and Special Projects at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

Economies in rural towns rely on industries that require less of a workforce, such as agriculture and energy.

Young people move away to find jobs, leaving an even smaller population from which to draw.

"I can tell you some doctors have packed up and moved because they can't make a living any longer," McBeth said.

When industry looks to relocate to a community, it examines two factors: health care and schools, McBeth said.

With towns losing doctors, improving the economy becomes much tougher.

Memphis' closing

The Hall County Hospital was millions of dollars in debt when it closed its doors in 2002.

Congress tightened its belt on the federal Medicaid and Medicare programs, which caused a drop in revenue for the hospital, which heavily relied on those patients.

Some of the hospital's longtime doctors were aging, and the hospital was not offering the services it had in the past.

But health care definitely has changed since that time five years ago, said Gayle Morrison, a former Hall County Hospital Board member who joined less than a year before the hospital closed.

"In a real life-and-death emergency, there's no hospital bed here, and that's a little worrisome, especially for the older folks," Morrison said. "It used to be the first order of health care for most citizens, and that's a big problem for the community. Now they have to travel somewhere."

Memphis Mayor Joe Rollo said the county's ambulance services are quality and can quickly get a person to the emergency room in Childress.

"I don't think the closing of the hospital here affected the quality of life because at the time it closed, it didn't offer any major services anyway," Rollo said.

Morrison said Hall County didn't have an option but to raise taxes to generate revenue because the county was taxing at its maximum allowable, 20 cents for every $100 of assessed property value.

Local tax support is important for a rural hospital's survival, said Wally Boyd, administrator for the Ochiltree General Hospital in Perryton.

"We think we're successful because of local support, and local support is paramount," Boyd said.

Wellington's survival

It's a bit of an understatement to say Collingsworth General Hospital in Wellington was in financial trouble two years ago.

"It was so bad they had bake sales and raffles," said Mike Easley, regional director for Preferred Hospital Leasing, the company that operates the hospital.

The hospital was on the brink of closing its doors like Memphis did five years ago, but the community reached out to help the hospital.

It raised $250,000 in cash and raised taxes for three years to pay for $750,000 in bonds.

Wellington Mayor Gary Brewer said he heard little backlash to raising taxes.

"We wanted to keep health care here and in our community; that's very important to people here," Brewer said. "Everybody was in full support to getting the hospital back on its feet."

Voters approved a $6.3 million bond issue in May by a nearly 2-to-1 vote to nearly double the size of the hospital and expand its bed total from 16 to 26.

They have also hired two doctors who finished their residency two years ago and another young physician's assistant. They signal a long string of health providers for Wellington residents.

"I'm just tickled to death everything happened the way it did," Brewer said.

The move to EMS

Hall County, with its debt from the hospital bankruptcy paid, is turning its attention to ambulance services.

The hospital district bought a $150,000 ambulance for Memphis last year.

It hopes to buy more for Memphis and Turkey in the future and wants to hire a paramedic to staff the new ambulances.

Hospital District board president Ray Powell called the ambulances "emergency rooms on wheels."

"If their son gets in a car wreck or gets a spinal injury, we want them to get the best care available," Powell said.

Turkey's mayor, Carson, said people realize the need for a good ambulance service, especially with the hospital in Memphis closing.

Communities like Memphis can operate a hospital district without a hospital. It can use the tax money it collects to operate ambulance services.

"Transportation, whether it's ground or air, is important to providing good care for emergency care," Boyd said.

Boyd listed several rural communities in the Northeast corner of the Panhandle - Booker, Lipscomb, Higgins, Canadian and Follett - that operate their own ambulance services