LA GRANGE — After a last gasp for breath, St. Mark’s Hospital in La Grange will close its doors on Oct. 12. All hospital services and those services in the medical office building will be suspended at that time.
St. Mark's Board Chairman Dudley Piland expressed that the hospital's finances were too little and the debts were too great of an obstacle even with a lastditch effort by local investors to come up with financing to keep the doors open. The hospital’s mortgage payment alone was $160,000 per month. St. Mark's Hospital accepted its first patient in 2005 and has struggled financially since 2017 when its maternity ward closed due to being unprofitable.
In February, 64 employees were laid off as inpatient services were cut in order to save money.
This spelled the doom of the hospital albeit the pandemic monies given by the government kept it going for a few more laborious years.
As of Oct. 12, over 60 employees now face the unemployment line as they seek jobs elsewhere and patients scramble for medical services in nearby towns such as Smithville and Columbus.
