{"id":25762,"date":"2022-10-10T15:40:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T20:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/?p=25762"},"modified":"2022-10-10T15:49:52","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T20:49:52","slug":"a-message-to-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/a-message-to-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"A Message to the Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"25762\" class=\"elementor elementor-25762\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4682b83 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4682b83\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-66 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7c6927f\" data-id=\"7c6927f\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-424691e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"424691e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>St. Margaret\u2019s Health is exploring a new and promising opportunity, designed specifically to keep rural hospitals such as St. Margaret\u2019s in operation and maintain their important role in the community.<\/strong><\/p><p>Economic concerns have been building for years in the healthcare industry. In the aftermath of the Pandemic, these trends have only accelerated. This turn of events has posed significant financial hardships for healthcare organizations, threatening the continued closure of rural hospitals across America. Unfortunately, St. Margaret\u2019s has not been immune to this shift. As such, significant changes are necessary.<\/p><p>St. Margaret\u2019s is pursuing conversion of one of its hospitals to a new type of hospital, called a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH). The REH designation was recently established by the federal government, to address the growing concern over closures of rural hospitals nationally. Either SMH-Spring Valley or SMH-Peru could potentially qualify for the REH designation. No determination has been made regarding which of its two hospitals may become an REH, but the intent would be for the other hospital to remain a full-service hospital.<\/p><p>The REH designation allows for provision of emergency services, observation care and other outpatient services. Conversion of one of the St. Margaret\u2019s facilities to an REH would give St. Margaret\u2019s the flexibility to continue its consolidation of services and reduce duplication, while still providing emergency services at both locations. The REH designation also comes with significantly higher payment rates from Medicare.<\/p><p>Based on this potential REH opportunity, <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">St. Margaret\u2019s has put on hold<\/span> its application to State regulators (Illinois Health Facilities &amp; Services Review Board) to discontinue emergency and inpatient services at St. Margaret\u2019s Health-Spring Valley.<\/strong> St. Margaret\u2019s is actively working with our local State legislators \u2013 Representative Lance Yednock and Senator Sue Rezin \u2013 to facilitate the incorporation of the REH designation into the Illinois Hospital Licensing Act.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b20018f elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"b20018f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"135\" src=\"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/SMH14336-A-Message-to-the-Community-Ad.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-25769\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/SMH14336-A-Message-to-the-Community-Ad.jpg 600w, https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/SMH14336-A-Message-to-the-Community-Ad-300x68.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-94e62f9\" data-id=\"94e62f9\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f15b105 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"f15b105\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"661\" data-src=\"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Steth-Window.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-25768 lazyload\" alt=\"\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Steth-Window.jpg 400w, https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Steth-Window-182x300.jpg 182w, https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Steth-Window-367x606.jpg 367w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 400px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 400\/661;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"661\" src=\"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Steth-Window.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-25768\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Steth-Window.jpg 400w, https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Steth-Window-182x300.jpg 182w, https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Steth-Window-367x606.jpg 367w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/noscript>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>St. Margaret\u2019s Health is exploring a new and promising opportunity, designed specifically to keep rural hospitals such as St. Margaret\u2019s in operation and maintain their important role in the community. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25762"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25780,"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25762\/revisions\/25780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutsmh.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}