As Hospitals Close Children’s Units, Where Does That Leave Lachlan?

October 11, 2022
Business

A spokeswoman for the Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis said that it had occasionally reached full capacity and that the staff transferred about 23 patients to other facilities, including in Arkansas, so far this year.

The E.R. “was busy even prior to the closure of the St. John’s pediatric unit,” she said. Still, she said the hospital had not become overburdened. “Volume is fairly consistent with what we usually see on a seasonal basis,” she said.

Some Oklahoman families with chronically ill children say they routinely drive to Memphis, St. Louis and Rochester, Minn., for care. The distances cause financial strain and, in the worst cases, cause them to forgo care, said Katy Kozhimannil, director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center.

For those in rural communities, pediatric closures have made travel to what Dr. Rauch calls “bread-and-butter pediatrics” untenable. Sixteen-year-old Johnny in Childress, Texas, had to be home-schooled so he could travel eight hours to Dallas for dialysis treatment three times a week, according to his doctor.

Jamaal Bets His Medicine, a 2-year-old with an autoimmune disease in Fort Kipp, Mont., routinely takes an 11-hour trip to Billings, Mont., to receive infusions, his mother, Patricia, said.