Lightning over downtown Springfield.
Ozarks Community Hospital, in Springfield, Mo., will lay off 200 employees as the system closes its surgery and emergency departments, according to a Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader report.
Hospital officials blamed the layoffs on a CMS decision ”that it is terminating our Medicare agreement because we do not satisfy the federal definition of a hospital.” CMS has questioned whether OCH has enough inpatient volume to be deemed an acute-care hospital. The hospital is appealing the CMS’s decision.
And so the hospital will no longer admit people to its inpatient unit, effective immediately, and will close its surgery and emergency departments July 29.
An OCH spokeswoman told the paper that its Springfield clinics —including the OCH Medical Offices Clinic, OCH Primary Care Clinic, OCH Northside Behavioral Medicine Clinic and OCH Evergreen Clinic — will continue to operate as normally.
To read the full news story, please hit this link.
