State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

More than half of rural counties don’t have a hospital where women can give birth

The Washington Post: At Meadows Regional Medical Center in rural Vidalia, Georgia, the number of babies born each year has more than doubled over the last 15 years -- increasing from about 400 births in 2000 to more than 800 in recent years, according to the hospital's chief executive Alan Kent.

It might sound like a significant baby boom for the community of nearly 11,000 people. Instead, Kent says the uptick is a symptom of a phenomenon that is playing out in rural areas nationwide: the hospitals around Meadows Regional have either winked out of existence or canceled their obstetrics services over the years. The medical center now keeps a strategy map of its primary service area, which extends in each direction about 30 to 40 miles, Kent said.

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