NATIONAL NEWS FEATURES PLIGHT OF BELLVILLE MEDICAL CENTER AND OTHER RURAL HOSPITALS

  

The Bellville Medical Center recently received some national attention.

According to The Bellville Times, CBS News’ David Benaud visited with the facility as part of a report on the plight of rural hospitals across the nation.

The recent increase in COVID cases has left many rural hospitals in search of ICU beds for their emergency room patients.

The CBS story featured the problem the Bellville hospital faced when they needed a bed of a local patient in critical condition and were unable to find an available bed in Texas, Louisiana and other states for over six hours.  The patient was ultimately transferred to the VA Hospital in Houston, but passed away.

Any other time, the BMC staff would have had him transferred in 30 minutes.

In a follow-up by ABC Channel 13 in Houston, BMC CEO Dan Bonk emphasized the struggle to get rural patients to a higher level of care.