A crisis in US rural healthcare
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 1 August 2022
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
America’s rural hospitals face an uncertain future. One in three are now at risk of closure as doctors and nurses quit, patients struggle to pay their medical bills and government covid subsidies stop.
We hear from the front line of one rural hospital in Luray, Virginia. Travis Clark, the hospital's president, and Dr David Lee explain the everyday challenges facing patients and staff.
Alan Morgan from the National Rural Health Association tells us why rural hospitals are struggling. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute in Washington DC argues that rural hospitals should stop relying on subsidies and close their doors if they can’t become more efficient.
Presenter and producer: Szu Ping Chan.
Image: Dr David Lee in the emergency room of Page Memorial Hospital in Luray, Virginia; Credit: BBC
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily. I'm Su Ping Chan. Today we're talking about the uncertain future |
| 0:06.9 | facing America's rural hospitals, hundreds risk closure as they confront a perfect storm of staff shortages |
| 0:14.0 | and patients who just can't pay. We hear from one hospital boss who's worried the pandemic has put |
| 0:20.4 | off the next generation of doctors and nurses. |
| 0:23.3 | When you see the pictures on the news, if nurses dressed up looking like Darth Vader, |
| 0:28.5 | does that make you want to go into that field or is like, oh my, I didn't sign up for that? |
| 0:33.5 | COVID cash from the government has provided a vital lifeline. But is it enough? |
| 0:38.4 | Without changes in current policy, we are going to see as many as half of the rural hospitals |
| 0:44.0 | close in the United States. Just looking at the financial numbers, they just simply don't add up. |
| 0:49.5 | That's all coming up on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:56.1 | Well, you're in the best place in the country for tourism. |
| 0:59.9 | The natural beauty, the Shandah River, the mountains. |
| 1:02.3 | It brings a lot of people from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Richmond |
| 1:08.0 | to come to our area to stay overnight and visit. |
| 1:11.0 | That's Travis Clark. He spent most of his working life running hospitals in Lurray, Virginia, |
| 1:16.8 | including Page Memorial, where he's giving me a tour today. |
| 1:20.4 | Located around 100 miles west of Washington, D.C., and home to just 5,000 people, |
| 1:26.0 | it's an ideal place for a getaway. |
| 1:28.2 | But while the tourists keep coming, many residents are leaving. |
| 1:32.1 | So Page County, a lot like most rural counties in this country, is older, |
| 1:37.0 | more chronic disease population than the American average. |
| 1:41.5 | And we actually, unfortunately, saw stagnant to declining population on the last |
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