Tuesday, October 8, 2013

MINUTE RANT: On the misconception surrounding the future of small health systems



There is an OCH Regional Medical Center. It is located in Starkville, Mississippi (the same town that is home to Mississippi State University. The “OCH” derives from Oktibbeha County Hospital which is what it was originally. They consider themselves a small, rural health system. They are about the same size as Ozarks Community Hospital, but with more specialty services since there is no competition from larger health systems in their market. They made $2.8 million profit in 2012 and they are doing slightly better than break even in 2013 but they are looking for a big brother to acquire them because “the future looks bleak for small health systems.”

So, my question is “What should be the OCH response to statements like that from similar health systems?” (I could have picked any of a thousand systems. I thought one with a similar name may peak your interest.) My answer is “Bring it on. If it was easy, it wouldn't be any fun.”

“Oktibbeha County” has a distinctly Faulknerian sound to it, does it not?



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