![]() But while clinics provide important primary care services, researchers note that they struggle to fill the gaps in specialty and emergency care left by hospital closures. Unlike rural hospitals, which are increasingly being purchased by private equity firms and prioritizing lucrative specialties to increase profits, these health centers must offer primary care regardless of patients' ability to pay and be overseen by a board made up primarily of patients. ![]() Although it's rare, if not a first, for physicians to lead their own FQHC, he said, it's not uncommon to see FQHCs started by community groups, and in Gallup "the physicians are so dedicated to the community" that they're like a community group themselves. "I've not seen like this," said Tim Putnam, a faculty member of the Medical University of South Carolina, a former hospital CEO, and a past president of the National Rural Health Association. Under a sign welcoming patients to the clinic, Gallup Community Health shares information on acupuncture, therapy, early childhood development services, and finding insurance coverage after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Instead, they decided to stay and attempt to fill primary care gaps. Many of GCH's doctors came to Gallup from elsewhere and could have left town for more lucrative jobs. Since it opened its doors last August, Gallup Community Health has treated about 3,000 patients in its stucco office space just a block from the historic U.S. That status will qualify the clinic for multiple types of federal aid including drug pricing discounts. In response to the challenges facing their hospital, Wangler and the colleagues who'd gathered in her yard decided to open their own physician-led, nonprofit clinic, which is on its way to becoming an FQHC Look-Alike, an organization that meets the eligibility requirements of an FQHC but does not receive grant funding. By 2019, 20% of rural residents accessed care at such community health centers. Meanwhile, from 2006 to 2018, the combined number of Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Centers - outpatient clinics that receive federal funding to operate in medically underserved areas - increased by roughly 50%, according to a 2021 study from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Hundreds of others, like the one in Gallup, have cut services. Gallup's McKinley County was recording the largest primary care provider deficit in rural New Mexico - and local doctors knew that could lead to an increase in untreated conditions and patients seeking emergency rather than preventive care.Īs of July 11, 195 rural hospitals have shuttered inpatient units or closed their doors altogether in the United States since 2005. By late 2022, the hospital had closed its labor and delivery unit and lost most of its primary care doctors. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |