Memorial Hospital of Carbon County in Rawlins, WY, will be ending its labor and child delivery services on June 15. This is a result of the pandemic putting the hospital in a financial crunch, Wyoming Public Radio reports.
The hospital is roughly 100 miles away in every direction from another facility.
Stephanie Hinkle, the hospital’s marketing and communicating director, said the rural nature of the facility always poses challenges when it comes to staffing but the pandemic has worsened it.
During COVID-19, the hospital lost a lot of nurses, five of them were part of the labor and child delivery services department. They are now replaced by traveling nurses who get paid sometimes four to five times more than a staff nurse. Currently the hospital is spending $100,000 per week on traveling nurses. That cost is draining money from the hospital so Hinkle said they had to make a choice. Read more.
