Franciscan Health Alliance is responsible for two rural hospitals one in Rensselaer and one in Crawfordsville.
Both are small, which means their revenue base is much smaller.
That loss in revenue can affect virtually all aspects of the hospital's finances.
The medical industry..
Including rural hospitals.
News 18's meredith hackler shows us how the coronavirus could force rural hospitals to cut costs.
Ll: for small rural hospitals like this one in crawfordsville the effects of the coronavirus on their bottom line is already being felt however they aren't alone."
"this is affecting every hospitals bottom line."- terry wilson franciscan health alliance is responsible for two rural hospitals one rensselaer and one in crawfordsville.
Both are small, which means their revenue base is much smaller.
"when you take out all of the elective procedures that we do in those hospitals and any hospitals those size it has a very large impact on their revenue base."-terry wilson that loss in revenue can affect virtually all aspect of the hospitals finances.
"it can affect staffing going forward it can affect programs that don't pay for themselves.
All hospitals have those.
But in a small rural hospitals that has a bigger more significant impact in the short run."-wilson however..
The two rural hospitals that are part of the fransican health network have an advantage.
"if they lose a considerable amount money in this short run we can sustain them through the strength of fransican alliance."- wilson rural areas already have a hard time recruiting talent..
A problem health proffesionals think will get worse after the pandemic subsides.
"there will undoubtly be an increased use of virtual care, so online kinds of telemedicine options especially in small communities where it is hard today to recruit physicians and will be as difficult if not more so in t he future."-wilson ll: as of right now, there are no plans to cancel any kind of special programming that may be offered at rural hospitals like this one but the future is unclear.
In crawfordsville meredith hackler news 18.
Wilson says rural independent hospitals will be affected the most by the coronavirus..
And that many could close or become part of a larger health organization.
A check on the weather now...and we'll be turning a bit