Another California county is losing its only hospital

Glenn Medical will be closing its doors after losing federal ‘critical access’ designation.

- By Ana B. IBARRA

ONCE Glenn Medical Center shuts down, residents will have to travel at least 40 minutes for critical care.

Absent a Hail Mary, Glenn County’s only hospital is set to close its doors in October.

Tucked between two national forests, the rural county is home to 28,000 people. Without a local emergency room, they'll instead have to travel at least 40 minutes to a neighboring county for critical care. One hundred and fifty health workers will lose their jobs; they're already resigning to seek work elsewhere.

The planned closure of Glenn Medical Center follows a decision by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to strip the hospital’s federal “critical access” designation, a status that has provided Glenn Medical increased reimbursement and regulatory flexibility. Without that status, the hospital's $28 million in net annual revenue will take a hit of about 40% — a gap too large to fill any other way than closing the hospital, said Chief Executive Lauren Still.

“It’s heartbreaking that we come to this. I am still kind of praying for that Ilth-hour miracle to come through,” Still said. “But honestly, we just have to be realistic, and this is the hand we've been dealt.”

Over the last several months, Still and her team have been attempting to make their case with the federal health agency, even flying to Washington, D.C., in July in an attempt to lobby their case.

At the crux of the issue is a federal rule, newly reinterpreted, that requires critical access hospitals to be at least 35 miles from the next closest hospital when traveling by main roads. Officials at CMS now say that the next closest hospital, Colusa Medical Center, is only 32 miles away — three miles short of the required distance.

Glenn Medical Center and county health officials argue that most people and ambulances take a different route, I-5 to Highway 20. That route is 35.7 miles, a distance that would qualify.