'How Can You Do This to People?': After Rural Hospitals Close in Milam County, Residents Scramble to

‘How Can You Do This to People?’: After Rural Hospitals Close in Milam County, Residents Scramble to Find Care


Shan Wilson’s surgery will have to wait.

The 64-year-old retired Marine was scheduled to have his prostate removed in early January at the only hospital in Rockdale, a town of 5,600 between Round Rock and College Station. Wilson had it all planned out: He’d drive his motorized wheelchair the four blocks from his home in west Rockdale to the hospital for the operation that day. Then, he’d take it easy at home for a week or so, finally putting an end to months of painful, recurring urinary tract infections. The surgery had been scheduled for months.

Then, last week, Wilson was hit with a bombshell: Rockdale Hospital abruptly shut down, taking with it his primary care physician, urologist and surgeon. Wilson said he was shocked by the closure, partly because he received no notice from the hospital. Instead, Wilson said, he heard about the situation by “word of mouth” at the Rockdale Senior Center, where he eats lunch most days, plays bingo and does crafts.

“I thought, ‘Who’s running the Mickey Mouse railroad?’” Wilson said over a plate of barbeque on Friday. “You can’t even tell the patients the hospital is closing? People depend on the hospital. How can you do this to people?” Wilson would later discover that Little River Healthcare, the hospital’s parent company, also closed three satellite clinics in the county and another hospital in Cameron, the county seat 18 miles away. The closures leave a gaping hole in health care access for Milam County residents; the five facilities together averaged about 3,000 visits a month, providing a wide range of services, said John Weed, the hospital’s former medical director. “We’ve had health care jerked out from underneath us,” he said.

Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/how-can-you-do-this-to-people-after-rural-hospitals-close-in-milam-county-residents-scramble-to-find-care/