People in Fort Scott, Kansas, are trying to save their emergency room — or cope with the loss

City and county officials are working to save ER services in the southeast Kansas community. If that doesn't work, they're trying to prepare by hiring more ambulance drivers.
When Fort Scott’s Mercy Hospital closed in early 2019, the community of 7,550 people in southeast, Kansas, briefly lost its emergency room. Mayor Matthew Wells remembers the time without an ER clearly.

“I watched several people, two in particular that I've known my whole life, die with injuries sustained that very easily could have been resolved in an ER,” Wells said.

Now, the town is once again in that position after the community’s stand-alone ER closed, leaving residents to travel at least 20 miles to the nearest emergency center and raising concerns about attracting new residents and businesses. Local officials are scrambling to bring in a new provider but are running into regulatory hurdles.

After Mercy Hospital closed its doors in 2019, a non-profit Catholic health system based in Pittsburg, Kansas, Ascension Via Christi, stepped in to provide emergency room services. But recently, citing financial hardship and a decline in patients, Ascension announced the company would be leaving town December 20.