It’s a man-bites-dog news story. Fort Scott announced Monday that it will once again have a hospital.
The welcome news bucks a 20-year trend of shuttering rural hospitals. Since 2005, almost 200 rural communities in the United States — nine in Kansas — have lost their hospitals due to flagging profit margins.
Fort Scott’s Mercy Hospital closed in December 2018.
Sweeping in to save the day is Noble Health Corp., a small Kansas City-based non-profit formed in 2019 that also owns hospitals in Fulton and Mexico, Mo. Like Fort Scott’s, the Missouri hospitals were operating beyond their means.