Feds to Temporarily Close Reservation Hospital’s ER
The emergency room at the Indian Health Services hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota, will temporarily close, the federal government announced Tuesday, a move that some tribal officials say will threaten lives.
The Sioux San Hospital emergency department is set to be closed on Sept. 20 due primarily to the age of the facility, IHS officials said, though the hospital will continue to offer urgent care services around-the-clock for needs that are not complicated or life-threatening.
Federal officials did not say when ER services might resume. The next closest emergency room is less than 5 miles (8 km) away at Rapid City Regional Hospital.
“This action is one in a series of steps to focus on improving patient care provided at Sioux San Hospital to better meet the needs of patients we see and to enhance their quality of care,” IHS Great Plains Area Acting Director Capt. Chris Buchanan said in a release.
Inspectors with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this year had cited serious issues with patient care in the Sioux San emergency room and had threatened to cut off funding. The review had found patients were not receiving appropriate medical screening examinations and the lack of care could cause serious injury, harm, impairment or death to a patient.
A correction plan was put in place and continued funding was approved by CMS in May.
Officials with the Unified Tribal Health Board for the Sioux San Hospital, which consists of the Oglala Sioux, Rosebud Sioux and Cheyenne River tribes, criticized Tuesday’s action.
O.J. Semans, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Health Board, said it will strain area hospitals that will have to take over emergency care. He pointed to the Rosebud hospital emergency room, which was shut down for seven months and reopened in July.
“It’s almost beyond words when you know that you have other relatives, brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts that their lives are going to be in danger as much as they were here,” Semans said.
CMS had issued similar deadlines to IHS-run hospitals on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota after substandard conditions were uncovered during inspections.
“We need a complete audit in order for us to get the big picture of how bad this is and what we need to do to fix it,” Semans said. “And until we get that independent audit, we are going to go through this with every hospital in the United States.”
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Associated Press writer Regina Garcia-Cano in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed to this report.