As Gregg Gibbes walked through the doors of his new hospital in April 2019, he faced a frightening yet all-too-possible future: The facility he had been tasked with leading was at risk of shutting down and taking hundreds of jobs with it, and leaving Simpson County, Miss., without an essential source of medical care, the Clarion Ledger reported. Magee General Hospital, a nonprofit, 44-bed acute-care facility, had filed for bankruptcy eight months earlier in a bid by former owners to save the community facility from financial death. The hospital is an economic hub in the area, and an essential source of care. Entering as the hospital’s new CEO, Gibbes was part of a restructured board of directors and a shrewd plan to beat the bankruptcy through sharing staff with a critical-access hospital in Covington County 20 miles to the south. This May, Magee General exited its bankruptcy, achieving a feat the likes of which “you’d be hard pressed to find another rural hospital” completing successfully, said Gibbes. But now a second storm is ravaging the land. After the pandemic forced Magee General to cut elective care, which six months ago accounted for two-thirds of its revenue, the hospital must confront a pandemic that has been the latest battle for survival for rural hospitals around the country. To date, Magee General has received the lowest amount of coronavirus-related stimulus money of any acute-care facility in the state. To navigate chapter 11 over the past two years, Magee General had to be guided out of a storm of uncompensated care costs, increasingly expensive equipment and shrinking elective care visits — common challenges for rural hospitals in the South.
