The emergency room at the only hospital on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota will reopen since federal officials on Tuesday hired a contractor to provide emergency services there and at two other government-run hospitals, according to ABC News.
The Indian Health Service signed a one-year contract to AB Staffing Solutions to run the currently closed emergency department on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The contract, which has a $60 million ceiling and is renewable for up to five years, will also cover the ERs at hospitals on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska.
"This new contract underscores the IHS commitment to pursuing creative new solutions that ensure high-quality care for our patients, who are our top priority," Mary Smith, principal deputy director of the IHS, said in a statement Tuesday. "The new contract will benefit IHS patients and providers by ensuring a 24-hour Emergency Department at IHS Rosebud Hospital and two others."
The move to privatize the hospitals' emergency rooms follows federal inspectors' identification of serious deficiencies at all three. The IHS closed the 35-bed Rosebud Hospital's ER in early December, forcing those in need of emergency services to travel 50 miles for care. Tribal officials in Rosebud said five people died and two babies were born in ambulances on the way to the nearest hospital in the six weeks following the closure of the ER, according to the report.
The IHS has not stated an exact date to reopen Rosebud's ER, but it hinted it aims to do so by summer. The agency said the ER will reopen "as soon as it is safe to do so," and that the new contract with AB Staffing Solutions "marks significant progress toward that goal," according to the report.