LA GRANGE — In the wake of shutting down St. Mark’s Medical Center will be 64 employees on the chopping block. That is almost half of the staff at St. Mark’s. The hospital board decided to pursue a Rural Emergency Hospital designation instead of closing the entire facility down.
With a Rural Emergency Hospital designation, St. Mark’s can only offer emergency room services and labs. All inpatient and surgical services must not be offered at that location and shunted to other hospitals in the area. This may be a boon or bust to the likes of the Columbus Community Hospital or Seton Smithville Regional Hospital in Smithville.
The extra services no longer rendered in La Grange could have an effect on services at other hospitals. If services are already strained at area hospitals, then those hospitals must learn to cope with the extra patients. However, citizens of La Grange are not giving up the fight. Fayette County Judge Dan Mueller issued a plea to the residents about the hospital that serves them so well.
Judge Mueller writes, “To the residents of Fayette County: I give you information today about an unpleasant subject. Our hospital in La Grange is on the brink of closure. We, the residents of this county have a problem, and we must face it. What I am about to share with you is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. St. Mark’s Hos- pital finished construction and opened in 2005. As in any major project, I am sure mistakes were made. It was probably built bigger than necessary. Mistakes were made by honorable people. Their intentions were honorable.
In 2010, our problems began. A conglomerate known as Community Hospital Corporation (CHC) was given control of St. Mark’s Hospital. CHC is headquartered in Plano, Texas. So much is unknown about CHC. There are people who sit on the board of CHC and also sit on our local board. They have made decisions that may have been good for CHC, but not for St. Mark’s. With threats of shutting down the hospital, we were told us that we must pass a taxing district. When this taxing district failed 81% to 19%, we were told the hospital could not remain open. Then COVID hit.
St. Mark’s and all other hospitals across America received significant gov ernment monies. CHC says the COVID money has expired and we are back to our crisis of not being able to keep the hospital open.
Jan Dockery, the Mayor of La Grange, and I were told that unless money could be raised the hospital would apply to become a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) Facility meaning that initially 64 people would lose their jobs and services would be limited. There would be no surgery, no inpatient care.
Working with Mayor Dockery, we were able to locate a hospital corporation who specializes in operating rural hospitals. The Mayor and I asked this company to consider the prospects of possibly taking control of St. Mark’s. The hospital corporation that Mayor Dockery and I contacted has an excellent record of saving rural hospitals. At the inception of this country, Patrick Henry said, “I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.” In the past, this corporation has saved hospitals much like ours in Bellville, El Campo, Palacios, Llano and Trinity.
Mayor Dockery and I have had conversations with state Senator Lois Kolkhorst. She is with us in this fight. We must keep St. Mark’s open. A full hospital facility. Failure is not an option. We need and we deserve our hospital. If our EMS personnel have to transport patients to Austin who would normally be admitted to St. Mark’s it will cost at least $1,150,000 according to EMS. Strong healthcare is vital to our county and we depend on it. If we can successfully gain back control of this hospital, I pledge to you we will have transparency. Residents will get updates and we will know where things stand. Please join me.
Let us band together. Let’s get this hospital back in the hands of the people who live here. People we trust.”
