(STURGIS) - After over 100 years of operation, Sturgis Hospital has closed their doors.
At 12 PM on Friday, the staff of Sturgis Hospital walked out the door for the final time. It was announced on Tuesday that the decision had been made for Sturgis Hospital to cease operations.
Hospital staff were greeted by family and friends along with members of the community. Loren Corbin, Chief Nursing Officer, says this is a tough time for the staff, and every emotional. She says there are lots of long term employees at the hospital and it's a surreal time for a many of them and very hard for them as it obviously would be. (LISTEN ABOVE).
Despite the troubles surrounding Sturgis Hospital over the last ten years, Corbin says this crew are the ones who stuck it out to make sure people were treated properly when they walked through the doors.
Corbin says the word the staff is using now is decompress. She says they will be doing that and then see what the next step is.
In the media release sent out Tuesday it was announced that the decision to stop seeing patients at Sturgis Hospital follows years of ongoing financial challenges facing rural healthcare providers. That includes declining reimbursement rates, rising operational costs and a sustained decrease in patient utilization.