The American Hospital Association has released on the state of rural hospitals across the country. There鈥檚 good and bad news about how the Mountain West stacks up.
First, the bad news. When it comes to the number of , our region looks like a black hole.
鈥淲e suffer from incredible shortages in mental health professionals,鈥� says Konnie Martin, CEO of San Luis Valley Health in Alamosa, Colorado. 鈥淚t is crisis-level in a lot of communities.鈥�
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Mountain West stands out for its high suicide rates. Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado are all within the for the highest rates of suicide.
Martin says there isn鈥檛 a single psychiatrist in her six-county region in southern Colorado, and while telehealth may sound like a quick solution, the technology required to conference doctors in remotely is just too expensive.
The of primary healthcare professionals is a little better, but Martin says it might be misleading.
鈥淲hen you look at my county it looks like, 鈥楢ll right, Alamosa County is doing pretty good. They've got enough providers.鈥� But when you back up and say, 鈥榃ell, wait a second. Alamosa's providers take care of patients in a six-county region,鈥� all of a sudden you're not doing good,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 think the map, as dire as it looks, is even understated.鈥�
On the brighter side, rural hospitals in the Mountain West aren鈥檛 closing the way they are of the country.
Martin says Medicaid expansion is likely a big factor keeping rural hospitals like hers from sputtering out. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Wyoming is the that did not expand Medicaid.
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
