Health Care in the 21st Century

Doctor, 81, Keeps Arkansas Hospital Open Mar 12th - 5:55pm MURFREESBORO, Ark. (AP) - An elderly doctor has come out of retirement to keep the sole hospital in Pike County open after it lost a three-member medical staff. Dr. Hiram Ward, 81, who began his practice in the rural Arkansas county five years before Pike County Memorial Hospital was built in 1958, became the hospital's only medical staff member in January. (WTOP News)

This story highlights one of the most serious problems the United States is going to face in the coming years, that of health care at the local level. Already we are seeing problems in urban areas where ambulances are being turned away by hospitals that are at or near capacity, resulting in a risk to the patients life or well-being. Hospitals are undersized for the communities they are serving, communities that are full of uninsured patients, either because of immigration status or more realistically, occupational issues that do not allow them to be able afford or obtain medical coverage for themselves or their families. Rural areas are in even worse condition because the nearest hospital as illustrated here, may not have the staffing necessary to continue operations.

At a time with the United States is trying to lay down plans for how it will deal with an influenza pandemic or a disaster, be it natural or man-made, one has to wonder how hospitals, with little more than a dozen to two dozen bed surge capacity could even hope to handle the needs of community of 300,000. Much less an urban area of several million people.