Auditor Gauges Strength Of Publicly Owned Mississippi Hospitals

JACKSON, Miss. –Mississippi is home to nineteen rural, publicly-owned hospitals, which are tasked with providing healthcare for many non-urban Mississippians. These hospitals serve a community that is older, poorer, sicker, and more dependent upon public insurance than others.

In 2004, the Mississippi Legislature passed the Rural Health Availability Act, which allowed rural hospitals to more easily serve their respective communities, but these hospitals are still subject to many financial hardships.

Each hospital was scored using a Financial Strength Index (FSI), which is a copyrighted, baseline measurement. Only five rural, publicly-owned hospitals are rated as “Excellent” or “Good.” Six of these hospitals were rated as “Poor.” Since 2010, five of these hospitals have closed.   Noxubee County General is one of only two surveyed to rank excellent.

You can read the results for all of the rural hospitals studied here

Rural Hospital Assessment – 2017