Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

Rural paramedics are making routine house calls to avoid costly emergency room visits

Jun 28, 2024
Experts say community paramedicine programs, which involve paramedics checking in on people with known health issues before an emergency happens, can cut costs and ease strains on health care systems in rural areas.
Paramedic Alexandria Hollenbeck and Terlingua Fire and EMS Chief Susan Martin are involved in the first community paramedicine program in rural Terlingua, Texas.
Travis Bubenik/Marfa Public Radio

America’s rural hospitals are in the red

May 17, 2023
A new federal program is dropping rural hospitals a lifeline to keep emergency services available as they struggle to turn a profit.
Battle-tested nurse practitioner Peni Russell is among the bare-bones staff responsible for stabilizing sick and injured patients who come into the rural emergency hospital in San Augustine, Texas.
Elizabeth Trovall/Marketplace

Some hospitals struggle as borrowing gets more expensive

May 8, 2023
Cash-strapped rural and medium-size hospitals are less prepared to absorb higher interest rates.
“Wages and labor pressures are increasing in hospitals unless they're able to find ways to cut back on staff or cut other expenses," said Krutika Amin of KFF.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

For a rural hospital trying to reopen, hiring is a challenge

Oct 6, 2022
Many rural hospitals have closed during the pandemic, and their staffers found other work far away.
The Haywood County Community Hospital reopened in August after more than a year of renovations. The hospital closed in 2014.
Blake Farmer/WPLN News

Lab billing operations add to rural hospital woes, leaving some on life support

Jul 18, 2022
For rural communities, the loss of hospitals means no access to nearby emergency care and the loss of health care jobs.
Rural hospital closures have increased during the pandemic. Many hospitals were run by  lab companies that left difficult financial and legal problems behind.
David McNew/Getty Images

COVID hot spots are pointing the way for future health care development plans

Apr 11, 2022
In Nashville, health care facilities are expanding to serve some areas that were hit hardest by the pandemic.
This hospital in Parsons, Tennessee, closed just after the pandemic began. Now, a company is attempting to reopen the facility.
Blake Farmer/WPLN News

Company aims to buy and restore struggling rural hospitals in Tennessee

Mar 24, 2022
For rural communities, a key question: Can a new company that is taking over ownership restore confidence in the care the local hospital provides?
Kyle Kopec uses his phone to illuminate a cabinet of medical supplies in the shuttered Decatur County General Hospital. His company, Braden Health, is taking over the facility with a pledge to invest $2 million to reopen it.
Blake Farmer/WPLN News

For public good, not for profit.

Rural hospitals expect to see a boost with changes to Medicare reimbursement

Sep 30, 2019
Medicare is increasing reimbursement rates for certain low-wage hospitals, but not everyone supports the change.
Coosa Valley’s café, called the Hickory Street Café, is a popular lunch spot in Sylacauga, Alabama.
Mary Scott Hodgin/Marketplace

Hospital closure leaves soon-to-be mothers in rural Missouri without an OB-GYN

Jul 16, 2018
Another rural hospital has closed, the 85th to shutter in the U.S. since 2010. This latest closing happened in Dunklin County, Missouri, one of the poorest counties in the state. The hospital was home to the only OB-GYN physician in a region that has one of the highest premature birth and infant mortality rates in […]

Rural Georgia residents are hit hard by local hospital closure

Apr 7, 2017
'Without health care, people don’t want to stay here. I don't blame them,' a former nurse says.
When Stewart-Webster Hospital closed in 2013, residents say they lost a sense of security along with a health care provider.
Elly Yu