Our local hospital is not a "specialty facility" but it is doctor-owned. This is a small rural community hospital owned by a handful of local physicians. There IS an Emergency Room, but unless one of the doctors happens to be there on-site already, they are called in and you have to wait. Then you get whichever one is on call for that day. Not always good. The closest large full-service hospital is 60 miles away.
When the doctors have a financial interest in keeping their hospital beds filled, all kinds of problems can arise and we've certainly seen that here. People without insurance will be given a handful of pills, a pat on the head, and then shown where the Exit is - my son was once one of them. But then I've known people with good insurance who were practically held prisoner there!
They are not equipped to handle anything serious requiring a specialist, but their financial interest makes the doctors very reluctant to refer people on or to transfer them to a bigger hospital. I have a friend at work who ended up there after having acute abdominal pains - her husband took her there because it was close and he was scared. They kept her there, sick as a dog and in horrible pain, for FOUR days while they monitored her temperature and conferred with each other. They finally agreed to send her by ambulance to the hospital 60 miles away, and as soon as she got there, they could tell that her appendix had ruptured - FOUR DAYS earlier! She almost died!
Another friend who has already had one heart attack and two heart surgeries went there with chest pains to be checked out, with the idea that if it were serious, he could immediately be sent by ambulance to the large "big city" hospital where his cardiologist is. They kept him there for almost a full day before sending him on ... long enough that they could charge him for a full day! They only arranged for the ambulance to transport him when he gathered up his things and threatened to walk out the door and drive himself! Bad deal all around!
If I were on fire and being attacked by killer bees at the same time, I would crawl, if necessary, right past this place, 60 miles down the road to the decent hospital!
