Wow, it’s almost like the gubmint is trying to make rural folk move to the urban, big city areas. Nahhh.
Here’s the inside scoop...business-wise...a small country hospital can only provide A, B, and C. If you wanted some help with pneumonia or a minor car accident...you go to the county hospital.
But go and say that a accident occurred on highway 72 and really serious injuries occurred...well, it’s got to be a chopper call and they will haul these folks to the ‘big’ hospital 40 miles away, where they have a burn unit and a serious injury unit. County general? Skipped, for obvious reasons.
I noticed when my dad came down with cancer and there was the option of the local cancer unit with limited statistics and success....he opted for the bigger cancer unit fifty miles away. Most of the locals all do the same thing. Forty years ago...they would have driven 100 miles to Nashville and used their big cancer center.
So, business wise, we are getting to a point where local ISN’T enough or giving us the prime support we think we deserve. If you run a regional hospital and it’s not pulling X amount of profit....you will eventually close the front door. This is capitalism at work, NOT the government. Now, in Washington DC....in one particular neighborhood...the city council funded their neighborhood hospital for a decade, while it carried continual losses...rather than force everyone in the city (6x6 miles) to go to one city-supported unit.