Small Texas towns near bigger cities seem to be well-positioned for residents to find health care. But those cities can unintentionally suck resources and professionals away from rural towns, leaving residents far away from the closest hospital.
pushing rural residents out, such as a lack of economic benefits or job and education opportunities.
“Rural hospitals are often the biggest economic driver for many rural communities,” said Adrian Billings, an Odessa doctor with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. “So when one closes, doctors and other employees will move to another community that does have a hospital.” Erin Gonzales somewhat followed that track as a nurse practitioner. She grew up in her mother’s Muleshoe clinic before moving when she was 18 to a few small towns in West Texas, then to New Mexico. She moved back home a few years ago, when her mother was ready to retire.
It can be disheartening at times to work in rural health care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she would prescribe medicine that Muleshoe’s pharmacies could not fill, and instead had to be filled in Lubbock. Even in the case of a broken arm or leg, Muleshoe providers can only stabilize and send patients off — an hour and 15 minutes away — to a Lubbock orthopedic surgeon who can set the bone.“We have patients who have needs but who are vehicle destitute,” Gonzales said.
“You take an urban student and ask them to go to a place like Presidio where they are 150 miles away from the nearest Walmart, it’s a hard ask,” Billings said.
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