Nye Regional in Tonopah shutting down

TONOPAH - The financially struggling Nye Regional Medical Center will close its doors in September following a series of attempts by the county to loan the struggling facility additional funding to keep the center open.

In a surprise announcement to the staff on Wednesday, Nye Regional Medical Center CEO, Wayne Allen, said that the center will shutter at noon on Friday and the outpatient clinic will close on Sept. 4. All acute care patient services within the hospital, including the emergency department, inpatient care, laboratory, radiology, respiratory and outpatient therapies will also cease operations.

Earlier efforts to save the hospital by arranging partnerships with other health care organizations proved unsuccessful due to the hospital's small size and remote location, he said.

"NRMC has struggled financially for the past several years," Allen said. "The hospital operations cannot be sustained any longer with expenses greater than revenues."

Most recently, Nye County approved an additional $500,000 loan for Prime Care Nevada Inc., parent of Nye Regional Medical Center, in addition to the initial $2 million the county already loaned the facility. However, the loan item was pulled from the Nye County Commission agenda on Tuesday without comment. The county was also in the process of establishing a hospital tax district.

The money was supposed to buy another month for the hospital and officials said the funds are now expected to come back to the county.

"We are working with several people in the county and in the state of Nevada," Tonopah Town Manager James Eason said. "We are trying to postpone it, (but) we aren't trying to sugarcoat anything."

Nye County Commissioner Chairperson Lorinda Wichman said Tonopah residents could use Kingston Health Center, located more than 90 miles away.

"I think that it's absolutely horrible," Wichman said about the coming closure.

"We did everything we could possibly do to help them."

Wichman and Allen said a private entity would have to take over the operations.

"This is a tragic loss for the population served by our hospital," Allen said. "This is a decision that will ultimately jeopardize the health and well-being of our community and surrounding areas. We are hopeful that another health care entity will see this lack of access to health care as an opportunity."

Prime Care took over operations following last year's bankruptcy by the previous operator.

Allen said that despite the announcement he is still working to find someone to run the clinic.

"I continue to be in active discussions with a couple of health care entities regarding the continued provision of outpatient services in our clinic," Allen said Thursday. "Those discussions look promising to assure local access to outpatient services in our community."