Stranded: Rural Hospitals In Crisis

When Sumner Regional Medical Center closed in March of 2020, the town of Wellington, Kansas and its citizens were left in an impossible lurch. The hospital had been struggling financially for many years. Unlike many hospitals in rural communities around the country, this hospital, and others like it throughout Kansas, did not have access to the millions of dollars that came when the Affordable Care Act allowed states to expand Medicaid to cover lower-income citizens and infused money into local healthcare systems.

This film explores what’s happened in Wellington during a global pandemic at a moment when citizens and local leaders are scrambling to fill gaps that were left when their hospital went away.