|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Another rural Alabama county is without emergency and inpatient services, as Lawrence Medical Center in Moulton announced it was closing its ER and moving to an outpatient-only model.
The change comes as the hospital – the only one in Lawrence County – enters into a new financial partnership with Huntsville Hospital Health System. That new agreement will see LMC ultimately move from its longtime location into a new building and offer only urgent care, lab and outpatient services.
“This is the best path forward to ensure that the people of Lawrence County continue to have availability of healthcare in our community,” said LMC Board Chairman Gary Terry. “The care LMC provides today is overwhelmingly outpatient. Over 99% of our encounters each year are outpatient services such as primary care, imaging, lab testing, urgent care and physical therapy.”
The 98-bed facility served more than 60,000 patients in 2024, according to a press release, and has been in operation since 1953. Officials said the current facility is beyond repair and that they plan to use financial support from the county to construct a new facility.
The change will leave Lawrence County residents without an ER and late-night medical services.
It is the latest rural hospital in Alabama to either close completely or stop emergency, inpatient and/or maternity services. Since 2010, at least 14 rural hospitals have closed their doors and more than double that have stopped offering inpatient services. Recent studies have found that most rural healthcare facilities are operating at a loss, with most barely hanging on.
Some Alabama residents are left driving more than an hour to find ER services, and some are traveling more than two hours for chemotherapy treatments.
Alabama is one of just 10 states that has declined to expand Medicaid. It has one of the largest insurance gaps in the country, with an estimated 107,000 people lacking coverage. That number is expected to increase significantly in coming years. The state was able to shrink it from more than 300,000 thanks to federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act, but those funds are going away.
