Deal plan aims to revive ailing rural hospitals | www.myajc.com

Spooked by a spate of recent hospital closings in rural Georgia, state leaders on Wednesday embraced a rewrite of healthcare rules aimed at keeping faltering facilities open.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s plan would allow rural hospitals to dramatically scale back their services if they are in danger of closing or if they’ve shut their doors in the last year. The goal is keep these healthcare facilities afloat as they struggle for funding amid high unemployment rates and stagnant population growth in struggling areas.

The changes only apply to facilities within 35 miles of a full-service hospital. They would be allowed to convert into a freestanding emergency room that can stabilize patients and transfer them to nearby full-service hospitals. The changes allow them to abandon other costly staples of hospital care, such as inpatient surgery and complicated child deliveries.

“Communities should not have to go without crucial services – many of them life-saving – simply because they don’t fall within a certain zip code,” said Deal, adding: “By eliminating the necessity of trying to staff a full-service hospital with beds that do not have patients, with staff they do not necessarily need, I think this will help hospitals to stay open.”

The plan earned bipartisan support from rural lawmakers and healthcare advocates. Yet several legislators warned that a more sweeping fix is needed to help sustain rural hospitals in the longer term, and contended that Deal’s decision to reject funding for Medicaid expansion under the federal healthcare overhaul only aggravated the situation.

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