Every year from 2009 to 2012, between 52 percent and 74 percent of acute-care hospitals with fewer than 100 beds in Oklahoma posted losses, according to a report by Oklahoma Watch and the Tulsa World.
Those figures are significantly higher than larger hospitals in Oklahoma. In the same four-year stretch, only 7 percent to 19 percent of hospitals with 100 beds or more lost money, according to the report.
Oklahoma has roughly 70 small hospitals with fewer than 100 beds. The Oklahoma Watch and Tulsa World's findings have led some healthcare experts to think some state hospitals will be forced to drastically cut services, sell or close altogether.
"I wish I could say [the situation] is rosy, but it's not," Brock Slabach, senior vice president of the National Rural Health Association, said in the report. "This is not something we're crying wolf about. This is happening now."
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