Dr. Burton considers his hospitals new plan “innovative.”
“Unfortunately, working at a rural hospital that doesn’t meet federal qualifications for a critical-access hospital, we’re increasingly challenged by changes in the healthcare system,” he says. “We don’t want rural hospitals to go away. We want to serve patients in the same way, with the same level of quality, as urban hospitals. But practical problems in the healthcare system make that difficult.
“This model achieves the best of what we could hope for in this community, enabling us to pay higher rates and attract better physicians,” he says.
Larry Beresford is a freelance writer based in Oakland, Calif.