FORT SCOTT A tradition of health care is coming to an end in Fort Scott. Mercy Hospital announced Monday it is closing, effective the end of the year. The hospital has served Fort Scott since 1886.
Declining patient numbers and decreasing reimbursement for patient care by insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid were blamed for the hospitals struggles. The closure also means a loss of its emergency room and ambulatory surgery, which takes care of walk-in cases. Mercy is owned by the Mercy health system, based in St. Louis.
Coming to a partial rescue is the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, which will take over the clinic, pharmacy and radiology services in the hospital as well as the Convenient Care clinic in Fort Scott and clinics in Arma and Pleasanton.
CHC/SEK will lease the space from Mercy after the hospital closes. The other three clinics as well as the equipment in all the clinics, were gifted to CHC/SEK by Mercy. Contracts with about 70 medical providers and staff at Mercy are being finalized, said Krista Postai, chief executive officer of CHC/SEK.
Initial plans are to assume ownership for the Pleasanton and Arma clinics first followed by the Fort Scott clinics on Feb. 1.
Combined, the clinics serve about 13,000 patients. For CHC/SEK, that means their patient volume will increase by one-third.
CHC/SEK is based in Pittsburg and has a clinic, including mental health and dental health, in Iola. Mercy serves primarily those in Linn and Bourbon counties. Other nearby hospitals include those in Iola, Girard, Pittsburg, Nevada and Olathe.
We considered and exhausted every possibility for keeping our doors open, and ultimately we had to acknowledge that its a different era for hospital care in Fort Scott. Our hearts are heavy, but its the decision we know has to be made. -Mercy hospital president Reta Baker
IN A PHONE interview Monday night, Postai said Mercy was disadvantaged because it is not a critical access hospital and as such does not receive more generous reimbursements for patient care. The beauty of your hospital in Allen County is that you receive reimbursement based on the actual costs for Medicare and Medicaid patients, she said. Theres no better payor than Medicare for a critical access hospital.
Part of the stipulation to qualify as a critical access hospital is that it have no more than 25 patient beds. Mercy has 46 beds. Mercy is considered a PPS hospital a prospective payment system where reimbursements can vary widely. Its whatever Medicare will pay you. It will say the costs are averaged out, but in reality, theyre way below, Postai said.
As for private insurance, its reimbursements can be all over the map. Private insurance companies use a medical allowable formula based on the national average cost for a procedure. Hospitals that enjoy a high volume of patients can skew the costs, Postai said, precisely because of their numbers. Insurance can reimburse a hospital anywhere from 85 percent to 125 percent of the true cost of care, she said.
Postai agreed that healthcare is changing. In her view, most hospital models are outdated.
It used to be that a gallbladder surgery or having a baby would require a week in the hospital. Today, those patients are back home after 24 hours, she said, reducing the need for hospital beds.
Patients today also opt for hospitals in big cities such as Wichita or Kansas City for specialized care or major surgeries, Postai said.
As for rural areas, Hospitals everywhere in Southeast Kansas are fighting for market share, shei said. The future here is in outpatient care, for such things as physical and occupational therapy. Those services will continue to be in demand and provide a good stream of income. Another growing domain of hospitals is that of hospice and palliative care, she said.
