Weeds have punctured through the vacant parking lot of Martin General Hospitalās emergency room. A makeshift blue tarp covering the hospitalās sign is worn down from flapping in the wind. The hospital doors are locked, many in this county of 22,000 fear permanently.
Some residents worry the hospitalāsĀ sudden closureĀ last August could cost them their life.
āI know we all have to die, but it seems like since the hospital closed, thereās a lot more people dying,ā Linda Gibson, a lifelong resident of Williamston, North Carolina, said on a recent afternoon while preparing snacks for children in a nearby elementary school kitchen.
More thanĀ 100 hospitals have downsized services or closed altogetherĀ over the past decade in rural communities like Williamston, where people openly wonder if theyād survive the 25-minute ambulance ride to the nearest hospital if they were in a serious car crash.
Itās not just the financial part. Thereās still a huge shortage of qualified doctors. Even if you had infinite money to keep rural hospitals open, they couldnāt all be staffed with enough doctors.
Thereās also a management issue. Most doctors are terrible at management, but itās common for doctors to make the bulk of hospital management. Professional managers have the opposite problem as they donāt really understand patient care.
This leads to all sorts of odd problems, a notable one is the 12+ hour shift in most hospitals. This was done in part to reduce patient death, because transfer of care is the cause of most errors.