rural hospitals

The updated location is 2,500 square feet larger than the previous spot down the block.

The state’s priorities include improving access to care, building up its health workforce, and using technology to improve chronic disease management and bring care closer to home.

River Peak Health will feature emergency and primary care, as well as trauma, orthopedics and 24/7 surgery capabilities.

The Wyoming Department of Health is going around the state asking for input on how to spend its share of the Rural Health Transformation Program.

The last county in Wyoming without a hospital now has one. Uncertainty remains about its funding future.

A new report shows that nearly half of metro areas in the U.S. – including some in the Mountain West – have only one or two health systems controlling all inpatient care. Experts say that’s driving up the prices that patients have to pay.

The Labor, Health and Social Services Committee’s top subject during this interim was how to increase the number of labor and delivery and maternity health care professionals in the state. This, after the state lost three labor and delivery units over the past six years.

The Alzheimer’s Association of Wyoming recently received a more than $15,000 grant from the Wyoming Community Foundation to bring in-person education programs to the southwest and northeast corners of the state. The grant will support programming in Lincoln, Sublette, Sweetwater, Uinta, Crook, Niobrara and Weston counties.

Sixteen of the state's 27 hospitals are classified as critical access ones, meaning they receive more funding from the federal government for their operations caring residents in rural areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strain on the resources and finances of many. And while not all are struggling like some, those who lead these hospitals say it's become more difficult since the heights of the pandemic.

Rural hospitals in Wyoming are a lifeline for small communities throughout the state. But staying afloat can be challenging. Some say Medicaid expansion could help with financial woes but the Wyoming legislature failed to pass it this year. So rural hospitals are finding ways to survive.