To protect and strengthen rural healthcare, we must first address the systemic issues endangering it | Viewpoint

Alarmingly, access to care in rural communities is in real danger.

Damond W. Boatwright, the president and CEO of the Hospital Sisters Health System, says rural hospitals are hurting and need more help than they are getting.

A new report by the nonprofit Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform shows more than 700 rural hospitals – over 30% of all rural hospitals in the country – are in danger of closing.

Another report, from healthcare consulting firm Chartis, estimates 167 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, with another 418 likely to follow unless they turn things around.

While the data is concerning, I am encouraged by the attention it is drawing to the dire situation facing nonprofit rural community hospitals like ours.

For more than 140 years, Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) has provided health and healing to patients in small communities throughout rural Wisconsin, as well as southern and central Illinois. Our Hospital Sisters were among the first to travel to outlying communities, sharing their Mission to reveal and embody Christ’s healing love for all people through our high-quality Franciscan health care Ministry.

Today, HSHS hospitals and physicians continue to provide care, compassion and healing to each person in the communities we serve, regardless of ability to pay. But that Mission is in jeopardy.

In an increasingly complex and challenging health care environment, HSHS – like many other nonprofit, community hospital systems – has pursued all available strategies to sustain health services for those who entrust us with their care. We are cutting expenses despite rising inflation, increasing efficiencies and seeking ways to attract and retain experienced nurses amid a historical labor shortage.

To protect rural healthcare in America, we must find solutions that address the regulatory complexities, reimbursement challenges, escalating operating costs, unnecessary competition for patients, and other hurdles that make our business so difficult. These are the factors that create the troubling circumstances in which hospitals have no other option but to discontinue core services or to close.

Providing affordable and accessible health care to millions of people, especially those living in rural areas, should be a top priority for healthcare policymakers. As the CEO of a Catholic nonprofit health system, I believe the business of delivering health care was never meant to be grossly profitable. However, it is meant to be – and must be – sustainable.

The time has come to work together to find collaborative and creative solutions to solve the underlying, systemic issues that threaten rural health care.

Damond W. Boatwright is the president and CEO of the Hospital Sisters Health System.

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