Eureka Springs Hospital officials including chief executive officer Angie Shaw hosted a town hall meeting Thursday, March 14, at The Auditorium to discuss the hospital’s recent designation change.

The facility had operated under a “Critical Access Hospital” designation until recently. The hospital commission voted in October 2023 to approve switching to a “Rural Emergency Hospital” designation, and the change was approved in January by the State of Arkansas and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

As part of the change, the hospital received more than $4.5 million in state funds and is now eligible to receive monthly CMS payments specifically earmarked for Rural Emergency Hospitals.

Shaw said at the March 14 town hall meeting that the change will allow the hospital to focus on the services that had been most utilized by the community, including emergency room and outpatient services. As part of the transition, the hospital has eliminated its longterm inpatient and swing bed services.

“Our new designation brings a little more opportunity not only to the hospital, but to the community,” Shaw said. “As an REH facility, we are focused on now expanding and improving our emergency services and our outpatient services.”

Shaw said Eureka Springs Hospital will still provide short-term inpatient care, which she said has been a point of confusion for some community members.

“We currently partner with larger health care facilities across Northwest Arkansas and across the state to help provide longterm inpatient care or specialty care where it’s needed,” she said. “To be honest, nothing has changed in the way we see patients. When patients come into our hospital, we quickly assess them, determine whether they are right to stay within our facility for a shortterm stay, or whether they need to be transferred out for a long-term stay or specialty care, such as cardiac, or if they are fine to go home. That has not changed with anything we do.”

Shaw emphasized that emergency services are available around the clock.

“Our emergency room continues to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, or 366 since this year is a leap year,” she said. “We are both a trauma-designated and stroke-certified facility. We take pride that we have accomplished that through the Arkansas Department of Health. And we know how important healthcare is to our rural community. We’re all members of our community … and we see where it’s important and how it affects all of our community and our families.”

Shaw asked for the community’s input regarding outpatient services.

“Specifically, I would like you to tell us, are there outpatient services that you see could be useful here?” said. “With this new designation, we can bring different things in. We can reach out to our partner hospitals. As of right now, we do have a clinic space across from the hospital that is utilized (by) different specialists over in Northwest Arkansas, such as a dermatologist and urologist. And we now have a gastroenterologist. Of course, we’ve always had physical therapy and we have speech therapy. We can do any kind of outpatient nursing services such as infusions, therapy, and of course, like I said, our emergency services are there for the community to use.”

Shaw said the rural healthcare environment has changed over the past few years.

“Going back to the pandemic, of course healthcare went through a huge change when that hit,” she said.

Part of that change was expanded inpatient services in larger, urban hospitals, Shaw said. As a result, Eureka Springs Hospital and other smaller, rural facilities saw a decline in their inpatient censuses and an increase in emergency room visits and outpatient services.

“I think it’s just a shift in how rural healthcare is right now,” she said.

Shaw acknowledged that the designation change has been financially beneficial for the hospital.

“We were able to cut back on expenses and increase revenue through bringing in these new services,” she said. “It will help us to become more financially stable in an unstable financial healthcare world.”

The hospital’s chief nursing officer, Lorissa Rudd, and marketing director Samantha Jones also participated in the town hall meeting.

Jones said anyone with input or questions about the designation change is welcome to contact her at Samantha.Jones@ eurekaspringshospital. com.