In the last decade, 20 rural hospitals closed in Texas, the most in the nation. The closures are typically rooted in financial hardship — patients may be uninsured, there may not be enough patients in a small town and Medicaid reimbursements are low.
Family nurse practitioner John Hodges stands in front of his practice at Ralls Family Medicine on Sept. 1. Ralls is a small town about 30 miles east of Lubbock., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Ralls, about 30 miles east of Lubbock, sits in Crosby County and is on the edge of a West Texas medical desert, with limited services offered at Crosbyton Clinic Hospital — the only hospital in the county. Other resources are also being stretched thin due to nearby counties that lack health care access.
“When I left, I had a couple of patients who said, ‘What’s going to happen when you leave?’” Hodges recalled. “There’s two in particular that I remember, who are dead now. I still think, if I would have stayed in Crosbyton or if something was different, would they still be alive?” The clinic does have the support from city leadership. The city owns the building that houses the clinic and offers Hodges a “generous” rate, and Hitt said he and the city council will continue to support the clinic and its possible expansion.“Every time I’ve been there, he is snowed under. There’s always a lot of people in there,” Hitt said. “So if John needs something, he’s going to get it. We’re going to make sure of that.
It’s different from what Hodges is used to. He’s worked in offices that charge significantly more, but that cost weighed on him.
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