which are mostly surgery and cancer related, NOT preventative stuff)
1 hospital towns, most people will seek expensive non-emergency care (cancer, surgery, etc.) at larger city hospitals known for their fantastic oncology department, or world class cardiac or orthopedic surgeons.
Surgical suites, radiology machines, cost serious money. If 80% of the population is traveling for medical care, & they’re not being used, to offset the cost of building/buying/maintaining them? Hospitals go bankrupt. Similarly, if there aren’t patients, it’s impossible to get good doctors to populate those departments. Which is why a lot of small town hospitals shut down or become little more than mediocre ERs.
The first step in getting people to
use their local hospital is knowing that the same treatments they can get in the city are offered at home.
The next step is convincing them that the treatments aren’t po’dunk half assed substitutes for sleek & serious city treatments. If they ARE po’dunk half assed substitutes? They’ll advertise the “personal” connection & individualized care. If they’re top shelf? They’ll advertise their STAFF (having trained elsewhere (Hopkins, Michigan, etc.) and “come home” to be with “real” people / raising families where it’s smart to do so, etc.).
If the advertising is new? Unless you’ve also got a brand new Hospital administrator... Expect your hospital to either close in about 18 months, or be bought out in about a year.
