National Rural Health Consultants Assess Scotland County Hospital Has a Solid Future

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Despite rumors in the community, the Hospital is not closing and the Obstetrics (OB) Department is not closing. Stroudwater Associates and the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) executives were on site this week for a thorough review of service lines, financials and processes. Dr. Meagan Weber, CEO, Scotland County Hospital, gave this report, “Consultants from Stroudwater were here this week to analyze our service lines and provide a strategic plan to improve our processes. They had great news to report after their assessments! Our volume is doing very well, in fact, near pre pandemic status. They are confident that we can break even in six months and move forward with stable financials. Our focus is going to be to improve processes & operations, while seeking quality family practice clinicians to provide our vast range of services, right here in Memphis. We are currently talking to some OB/GYN providers that are interested in coming to our area. We plan on building our OB program and expanding services, as we seek out providers that want to join our team.” Stroudwater consultants confirmed that OB should not be closed, rather, work harder on finding providers to deliver OB services. Dr. Weber knows the OB Department offers services that staff hold a strong passion for and wants to continue to provide that service to the region.

The Hospital’s Executive Leadership team thought the Stroudwater consultants shed a very positive light on the Hospital’s operations and future. “The leadership and staff have a lot of hard work to do over the next couple of months, but all hands are on deck to turn our finances around. We thank the community for their support. Please know we are building a positive future for Scotland County Hospital and Clinics,” said, Lori Fulk, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Scotland County Hospital. The Board and Executive Leadership Team are excited for the future of the organization. The communities served by the Hospital can be excited too; taking a sigh of relief that the rumors are not true.

Earlier this summer, Scotland County Hospital was selected by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) to receive technical assistance, provided by Stroudwater Healthcare Consulting, funded by USDA through a collaborative agreement with NRHA. Stroudwater Associates, is the nation’s leading source of strategic, operational, and financial strategy for rural and community hospitals.

Mrs. Fulk said, “Our goal is and has always been that Scotland County Hospital survives and remains viable to continue serving our community into the future. Stroudwater’s assessments and reports are encouraging and we are ready to move forward with their recommendations. I want to emphasize that our medical staff are extremely qualified, and we strongly encourage the community to continue utilizing the Hospital’s services.”

Additionally this week, the new executives at the Hospital have negotiated a contract with Matt McKee for the 340B Drug Program through Scotland County Pharmacy in Memphis.

And finally, Scotland County Hospital’s Saturday Urgent Care Clinic will close, until further notice, after the Labor Day weekend. The last Saturday of Urgent Care will be September 3, 2022. This decision was based upon under utilization of the service. The weekend Urgent Care clinic was started in 2016 after resounding support to the Walk In Clinic which started at Memphis Medical Services in 2015. The Walk In Clinics at all of the Rural Health Clinics, owned and operated by Scotland County Hospital, maintain strong utilization and patients regularly use the Walk In Clinic services. The Urgent Care patient numbers, over the course of these six years, simply do not prove that it is a healthcare service that is highly utilized on Saturdays in Memphis.

Memphis, Lancaster and Edina clinics offer walk in hours from 8 am – 12 pm and 1 – 5 pm on weekdays; however, due to current staffing, the Edina Medical Services will be temporarily closed on Wednesdays. The Wyaconda Clinic is open on Tuesdays and has walk in hours all day. Additionally, all of our Rural Health Clinics offer same day appointments, when available.

What is the difference between a walk in appointment and a same day appointment? Walk in visits in a clinic setting are not pre booked. You must physically walk in to the clinic to be seen by a provider and then are seen in order of arrival or severity of your medical need. Walk in patients do not call ahead. Same day appointments are just that; they are scheduled that day. There is

a daily schedule for these visits and they are pre booked by calling into the clinic the day of. With one provider serving this need there are a limited number of those visits each day, so if you need to be seen, call early as appointments fill up fast.

To contact any of our Rural Health Clinics, call:

Memphis Medical Services 660-465-2828

Edina Medical Services 660-460-8140

Lancaster Medical Services 660-457-3655

Wyaconda Medical Services 660-479-5553.

For details on these topics andmore, listen to Dr. Meagan Weber, CEO, Scotland County Hospital, on KMEM, 100.5 FM next Thursday, September 1st when she and KMEM-KUDV News Director, Corey Stott, visit on air around 10:06 am – 10:58 am.