Stamford Memorial Hospital ended all inpatient care and shut down its emergency room last week, citing an average daily census that has dipped to just 0.48 so far in 2018, as KTXS reports. The new requirement to be considered a hospital by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—put into place late last year—is two.
Stamford is a couple hours drive west from DFW, but I point this out because I’ve followed the rule change in this space previously. In February, Hurst-based Cook Children’s Northeast Hospital announced it would be closing down as a hospital and re-opening as an ambulatory surgery center (that happened in early May). I later got my hands on the average daily census of all Texas hospitals in 2016, which showed us there are others in the area that are either below or right around the threshold of two. For example: the freestanding ERs of Baylor Scott & White Health, which told me it’s monitoring closing the CMS guidelines.
Much more about microhospitals and CMS’ guideline in that story, and the Abilene Reporter News has much more on Stamford Memorial’s closing, if you’re interested. I’ll keep monitoring the fallout.
