Hospital closure leaves soon-to-be mothers in rural Missouri without an OB-GYN
Hospital closure leaves soon-to-be mothers in rural Missouri without an OB-GYN
Another rural hospital has closed, the 85th to shutter in the U.S. since 2010. This latest closing happened in Dunklin County, Missouri, one of the poorest counties in the state. The hospital was home to the only OB-GYN physician in a region that has one of the highest premature birth and infant mortality rates in the state. Pregnant women there will now have to drive over an hour on winding rural highways to deliver their babies. The only hope to keep obstetrics in the area now rests with the hospital one county over, which closed its OB unit four years ago when that hospital nearly went bankrupt itself.
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