Thanks to the stellar reporting by Sarah Jane Tribble of Kaiser Health News, the closing of Fort Scotts Mercy Hospital and its effect on the town has been uniquely chronicled over the past year on National Public Radio.
Health care still exists in Fort Scott, but in a reduced format, Tribble writes. Instead of a full-fledged hospital it has a health clinic and an emergency room, each operated by different entities. Doctors arrange for babies to be delivered in Pittsburg, a 30-mile drive.
Repercussions from Mercys closing included the loss of a cancer center and dialysis services.
A new $9 million grocery store and in-house pharmacy also pulled up stakes shortly after the hospitals announcement.
City leaders remain confident they can right size health care offerings, Tribble writes, which in essence means downsizing expectations. The days of every berg having a hospital are over. Since 2010, 120 rural hospitals have closed around the country; 19 this year alone.
THE HOSPITALS fate is a reality check all too familiar for those of us in the newspaper industry. In the last 15 years, more than 1,400 U.S. newspapers have ceased publication.
As with Mercy, which had been in been in business for 132 years, the majority of those newspapers were longtime institutions.
Youd think after 150 years, we at the Register would be feeling pretty secure. But thats a death knell in itself.
In the hospitals case, Mercy was losing patients primarily to Olathe where several Fort Scott industries had secured less expensive contracts with health providers to oversee their workers compensation claims. By last year, Mercys daily census was a handful of patients. Without a loyal base, the hospitals days were numbered.
Retailers, perhaps better than anyone, understand the danger of outside competition.
The ubiquity of the internet has made us all focus on how to make our brands stand apart from run-of-the-mill offerings. Shop owners continually tweak their offerings to appeal to local tastes and styles. From week to week, store displays are updated, luring us inside their doors.
For the Register, local news is what makes us stand out from search engine websites such as Yahoo! News or Fox News.
We are your eyes and ears at meetings of city, county and school boards, turning hours-long sessions into easily digestible segments.
We ask the questions on the tip of your tongue.
For todays paper Register reporter Richard Luken has interviewed City Clerk Roxanne Hutton on why the City of Iola is now charging credit card users a 3% users fee on utility bills and how you can avoid the extra fee. And Vickie Moss took away from Mondays county commission meeting how some say the clock on the square is disturbing their sleep.
Being aware of such things helps bind us as a community.
