How Helping Patients Get Good Care At Home Helps Rural Hospitals Survive

Rural hospitals close when they don’t have enough paying patients to care for, but they’re also dinged when the same patients show up over and over again. That puts outlying medical facilities in the precarious position of needing to avoid repeat customers.

Charlotte Potts is the type of patient some hospitals try to avoid. She lives in Livingston, Tenn. — a town of 4,000, tucked between rolling hills of the Cumberland Plateau.

“I’ve only had five heart attacks,” Potts said recently with a laugh. “I’ve had carotid artery surgery. Shall we go on? Just a few minor things.” She joked that she’s “a walking stent.”