Eleven hospitals have closed in Tennessee since 2010 – more hospitals per capita than any other state in the nation. In 2018 and 2019 Celina, Selmer, and McKenzie were among the counties that lost the only hospital within a one-hour drive. Tennessee is one of eleven states that has decided not to expand Medicaid - a decision that advocates and community leaders say is partly responsible for the closure of these hospitals.
Mayor Jill Holland stands in front of the shuttered McKenzie Regional Hospital, the only hospital within a forty-five minute drive of McKenzie. More hospitals have closed their doors in Tennessee per capita than any other state in the country.
A sign hanging on the door of Cumberland River Hospital provides notice that the hospital will be suspending all services in a matter of hours.
In the final days before the closure of Cumberland River Hospital, an EMS worker in Celina, Tennessee reads an article in the Tennessean about the epidemic of rural hospital closures in Tennessee.
Celina EMS, Jennifer, watches T.V. in between calls in the final hours of the Cumberland River Hospital’s operation.
Natalie Boone, Director of Celina’s EMS and AMS, monitors incoming calls as she reflects on how to make the best use of the limited number of ambulances once the local hospital closes.
Nurse removes photos of staff memories from the administrative office in the final hours of the operation of Cumberland River Hospital.
Mary holds the photograph of her co-worker, Terri, standing in front of the bed where Terri took her last breath. Mary tells me that the hosptial staff is like a family, and that Terri had even requested to be transferred to Cumberland River Hospital for her end-of-life care because she “wanted to be around family” when she passed.
Mother and son stand next to a tractor in Selmer, Tennessee where McNairy Hospital suspended services in January, 2018.
Mayor Phil Williams is one of the longest serving mayors in the country. McKenzie Regional hospital is the closest urgent care facility to his home town of Mclemoresville - which is a forty-five minute drive. “That’s just the way things are in rural Tennessee,” he tells me, “We deserve the same access to treatment as any other city in America.”
Advocates from all over the state convene in Nashville for a rally encouraging Governor Bill Lee to expand Medicaid which would provide critical funding to rural hospitals.
