The 2020 closure of Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert “devastated our community,” said Steve Whatley. But with $11.8 million in aid passed by Congress, he now is optimistic that it will be replaced.
Whatley, chairman of the Randolph County Hospital Authority, said even with the new money, any replacement won’t be the same type of hospital that closed for lack of funds. The 25-bed hospital closed in October 2020.
The authority is working with an accounting firm to research what type of medical services could be sustainable. One possibility is a facility that’s a cross between a clinic and an emergency room with no overnight beds, but with around-the-clock emergency doctors who can stabilize a patient and send them to larger hospitals if needed.
The $11.8 million from Congress would go to renovation, construction and equipment, not ongoing operational funding.
“This truly gives us hope,” Whatley said.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who lobbied for the money and for other state legislation to help the effort, trumpeted the news Wednesday, but stressed that other hurdles remain.
“There is a long and uncertain road ahead,” Ossoff said in a press conference. “But this is the foundation for that effort.”
The Cuthbert hospital was locally owned and operated by the Randolph County Hospital Authority, and it struggled financially.
There are occasions when a big chain will step in to take over a local hospital, but chains like to see the potential for a profit. Whatley said they are exploring “all possible scenarios” of how a new facility could be structured.
In addition to the one-time federal funds, Whatley said, Ossoff’s office worked with the Georgia Legislature to push a rollback of state rules governing hospital openings, which should make it easier to open a new one. That bill was passed and is now awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature to become law.
New hospitals in Georgia must demonstrate a significant need for care in order to open through a process called certificate of need, or CON. Randolph County lost its CON after Southwest Regional closed. When applying for a new CON, other nearby hospitals can object to a new hospital opening, for fear of competition.
Hospital closures in low-income areas have been rampant across the nation and in Georgia. Health care businesses prefer to operate in areas where residents make more money and are more likely to have private health insurance. When a rural hospital closes, the community reels, both from the removal of doctors, nurses and ambulances, and from the loss of an economic anchor.
In the last decade, 10 rural hospitals in Georgia have closed their doors or given up full hospital services, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
An AJC examination of a dozen hospitals that closed down in Georgia in recent years showed that more often than not, they were in counties with a household income lower than the state’s average. For example, Randolph County had a median income of $29,400 compared to the statewide median of $61,200.
During the pandemic, the picture grew worse as COVID-19 overran hospital beds and often forced hospitals to stop moneymaking services like surgery.
The Cuthbert hospital was was one of 18 rural hospitals in the U.S. that closed in 2020, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina. That was the largest number of rural facilities to close in a single year since 2005, when the center began tracking the closures.
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