LA CROSSE — Rush County Memorial Hospital in La Crosse is not closing. For the past several months, however, the hospital has been working on downsizing to a new designation that will take effect on April 2.

REH designation

Keeping a rural hospital afloat in Kansas can be a difficult operation.

At the end of 2023, the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform reported that 84 of the state’s 102 rural hospitals recorded financial losses on patient services in 2023; 59 are in jeopardy of closing and 28 

are at immediate risk of collapse. Ten have closed since 2005, with Herington Hospital the most recent in October 2023.

With a new federal designation implemented in January 2023, there is a new option — as a Rural Emergency Hospital.

However, as the residents of Rush County are finding out, downsizing is “not a sterile transaction.”

At a Town Hall meeting Feb. 15 in La Crosse, Dr. Robert Ladd, interim director of the Rush County Memorial Hospital, told a large crowd of residents and patrons gathered at the City Auditorium that the hospital’s decision to seek REH designation comes at a cost.

The REH designation focuses on round-the clock emergency room and observation care and allows for existing laboratory, physical therapy, radiology, outpatient, wellness and clinic services, it does not support longterm care services, which will be closed.

April 2 marks the end of Intermediate Swing Bed, formerly known as Long Term Care. The 13 residents currently living there had been given 60-day notice to find another facility. “This plan does preserve most of the services that our community uses,” said Ladd. Only three patients have been admitted to the hospital since November 2023, Ladd noted.

The transition to REH means that 40 positions, or approximately half of the hospital’s 83-employee staff, will be seeking other employment. “This is not a sterile transaction,” Ladd noted. “Real families are being hurt.”

Ladd explained that the hospital has sought assistance from Kansas WorkforceONE to help those employees with unemployment applications and other benefits.

The new model

As of last count, 19 hospitals in the U.S. have made the transition to REH since the designation became effective. The first to do so in Kansas was South Central Kansas Medical Center in Arkansas City. Mercy Hospital in Moundridge was the second, on Jan. 1, 2023. Kansas Sen. Dr. Roger Marshall, who supports the new designation, had a representative at the meeting in La Crosse.

Part of the designation’s model includes federal funding receipt of $276.233.58 per month in 2024. The additional payment will increase each year by the same percentage as the hospital market basket increase.

Locust Grove Village

The hospital kitchen will be closed, necessitating a new venue to provide Friendship Meals service to the community.

Locust Grove Village, the community’s nursing home, is a separate entity and will not be affected by the change.

Outstanding bond issues

Rush County currently makes annual payments on three bond issues for the hospital of approximately $142,000 per year, including a $5 million bond issue for remodeling the building in November 2009. Those bonds issued through the Build America Bonds program were called in July 2013 and refunded with general obligation bonds Series 2013. The bonds are active through December 2034 and that status will not change.

Linda Kenyon, Rush County News, contributed to this report.