The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
$11.8M grant could help replace hospital in Randolph County
Hurdles still remain for new medical facility in Cuthbert.
The 2020 closure of Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center, in Cuthbert, “devastated our community,” said Steve Whatley. But with $11.8 million in aid passed by Congress, he now is optimistic it will be replaced.
Whatley, chairman of the Randolph County Hospital Authority, said that even wi h the new money, any replacement won’t be the same type of hospital that closed for lack of funds. The 25-bed hospi- tal closed in October 2020.
The authority is working with an accounting firm to research what type of medi- cal services could be sustain- able. One possibility is a facil- ity that’s a cross between a cl nic and an emergency room, with no overnight beds but with around-the-clock emer- gency doctors who can stabi- lize a patient and send them to larger hospitals if needed.
The $11.8 million from Con- gress would go to renova- tion, construction and equip- ment, not ongoing opera- tional funding.
“This truly gives us hope,” Whatley said.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who lobbied for the money and for other state legislation to help the effort, trumpeted the news Wednesday, but he stressed other hurdles remain.
“There is a long and uncer- tain road ahead,” Ossoff said in a news conference. “But this is the foundation for that effort.”
The Cuthbert hospital was locally owned and operated by the Randolph County Hos- pital Authority, and it strug- gled financially.
There are occasions when a big chain will step in to take over a local hospital, but chains like to see the potential for a profit. Whatley said they are exploring “all possi- ble scenarios” of how a new facility could be structured.
In addition to the one-time federal funds, Whatley said, Ossoff ’s office worked with the Georgia Legislature to push a rollback of state rules governing hospital openings, which should make it easier to open a new one. That bill was passed and is now await- ing Gov. Brian Kemp’s signa- ture to become law.
New hospitals in Georgia must demonstrate a signifi- cant need for care in order to open through a process called certificate of need, or CON. Randolph County lost its CON after Southwest Regional closed. When applying for a new CON, other nearby hos- pitals can object to a new hospital opening, for fear of competition.
Hospital closures in low- income areas have been ram- pant across the nation and in Georgia. Health care busi- nesses prefer to operate in areas where residents make more money and are more likely to have private health insurance. When a rural hos- pital closes, the community reels, both from the removal of doctors, nurses and ambulances, and also from the loss of an economic anchor.
In the past decade, 10 rural hospitals in Georgia have closed their doors or given up full hospital services, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
An AJC examination of a dozen hospitals that closed in Georgia in recent years showed that, more often than not, they were in counties with a household income lower than the state’s average. For example, Randolph County had a median income of $29,400 compared wi h the statewide median of $61,200.
During the pandemic, the picture grew worse as COVID19 overran hospital beds and often forced hospitals to stop moneymaking services, such as surgery.
The Cuthbert hospital was one of 18 rural hospitals in the U.S. that closed in 2020, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina. That was the largest number of rural facilities to close in a single year since 2005, when the center began tracking the closures.