JACKSONVILLE, Ark. — Tuesday night, North Metro Medical Center in Jacksonville closed its emergency department.
It was the only one in the city.
The mayor of Jacksonville and first responders said this is a huge inconvenience for a town of 30,000 people.
Community members said they need a hospital in town the people can rely on.
“For as long as I know, this was ‘no-go Metro,’” Keri Scott said.
Scott and several other residents said they had bad emergency room experiences at North Metro Medical Center.
Jacksonville Mayor Bob Johnson said the facility told him they decided to close the ER because it wasn’t making enough money.
“With some of the medical treatment and lack of that was given to patients and some of the scenarios even I personally experienced, it had a very bad reputation,” Scott said.
Mayor Johnson said North Metro told him earlier this year they’d eventually close the ER, but the sudden closure was unexpected.
He is concerned about having to transport every patient out of town.
The closest hospitals are CHI St. Vincent North in Sherwood and Baptist Health Medical Center in North Little Rock.
“I feel a lot of times, the ER’s are inundated with patients that aren’t life or death true emergencies, because they have no other place to go,” Scott said.
The news is also concerning for the Jacksonville Fire Department.
Last year, they transported over 1,100 patients to North Metro.
“Typically, we would take between one and three minutes to respond to the emergency room for North Metro Medical Center, but when we start getting outside the city, now our response from the time we pick up a patient from the time we get them to the ER extends from nine minutes to 13 minutes respectively for the next two closest facilities,” Jacksonville Fire Chief Alan Laughy said.
Fortunately, they recently purchased two new ambulances and equipment to help fill the void.
“We’ve been preparing for it with the replacement of the older equipment and adding in the mechanical ventilators,” Jacksonville Fire Dept. EMS Supervisor David Jones said.
Mayor Johnson said he’s been speaking with providers interested in coming to Jacksonville since January. He’s now working to get them in town as soon as possible.
“Anything that we would bring in by ambulance or someone would go to the ER for, there's none of those services,” Jones said.
Mayor Johnson said he’s not yet sure how many people have lost their jobs because of the sudden closure, but he’s working to help relocate them.
North Metro representatives declined to talk about the closure.