Rural Texas town to lose its only hospital as MidCoast Medical Center Trinity shuts down

TRINITY, Texas (KTRK) -- The only hospital in the rural southeast Texas town of Trinity is preparing to close its doors.

The closure of MidCoast Medical Center Trinity will leave people in the community with a 20 to 30-minute drive just to get to an emergency room; this comes after the hospital first closed in 2017.

CEO Brett Kirkham says that months after reopening last year and already performing services, it took time to get reimbursement for state and federal insurance, causing financial problems.

"It's just not enough, with the kind of post-COVID inflation and the high cost of salaries and supplies and the low to no reimbursement for the care provided these last 14 months," said MidCoast Health Systems CEO Brett Kirkham.

Meanwhile, healthcare leaders tell ABC13 that they fear this type of closure is only the beginning.

"The prospect of federal cuts is what I worry the most about, but at the end of the day, rural hospitals will survive. But they're going to need a little bit of help from our elected officials and policymakers to do that," TORCH (Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals) President John Henderson said.

MidCoast Medical Center Trinity will officially shut the doors on Friday, April 25, at 7 a.m.