New Hospitals Needed In Rural Areas

Aging buildings are putting many rural hospitals in Oklahoma at risk.

About 50 communities in places like Osage, Nowata, Pawnee, Noble, Lincoln, Creek, Adair, Sequoyah, McIntosh, Okfuskee, Hughes, Haskell, and Latimer Counties have hospitals that are 50 years old or older.

With aging facilities, healthcare officials say it's getting harder to attract doctors and patients, both of which are needed to keep these hospitals in business.

"The two things our studies show you have to have are a good education, we want our children to do better than we did, and access to health care," said Val Schott with the OSU Center for Rural Health.

The biggest challenge for small communities is to find the money to build a new hospital.  The OSU Center for Rural Health says it can help with funding options.