From NC Health News:
... the county had been working for several months on a complex plan to resurrect Martin General — a plan that, if successful, could become a blueprint for other rural communities where hospitals have closed.
Unlike Martin General, those hospitals were still in business when they made the switch. Officials in Martin County, however, believe the hospital can be reopened using the rural emergency model — something that has not been attempted anywhere else in the nation.
“As far as we can tell, this is really the first such situation in the country,” Ben Eisner, interim Martin County manager, said in an interview with NC Health News. “Trying to navigate that has certainly been tricky. It’s taken us a number of months to work through some of the regulatory issues of opening a closed hospital as a rural emergency hospital.”
Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirmed that Martin General could reopen as a rural emergency hospital, clearing the first and arguably most important hurdle in the county’s path.
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