Clinic folds after 13 months
Facility planned by Hillsboro hospital owner figures in closure
Staff writer
Abilene’s Memorial Health System’s Herington clinic, which opened in May after the abrupt closure of Herington Hospital seven months earlier, will close June 6.
Competition from a new emergency hospital proposed by the owners of Hillsboro Community Hospital is being cited as a reason.
The emergency hospital, not expected to be established until at least mid-2026, would stabilize patients before transferring them to bigger hospitals.
Plans for the emergency hospital to be operated by Rural Healthcare Group are only in their beginning phase but still factored into Memorial Health System’s decision to close its clinic only 13 months after opening it.
Memorial Health System marketing director Haley Jones said the clinic at Herington had struggled to be financially stable.
When physician John Mosier, who previously ran a clinic in Hillsboro, opened a clinic a few doors down the street, it reduced traffic at Memorial’s clinic, Jones said.
Jones said Memorial “rushed” to open a clinic at Herington after the community’s hospital closed but faced one hurdle after another.
“That ER hospital coming in would be a great thing for Herington,” Jones said. “That would probably be more competition. The profit means are not there. Of course, we wanted it to be profitable.”
In a press release, Jones wrote that Memorial’s decision followed a comprehensive evaluation of patient volume and long-term sustainability of services in Herington.
“Memorial Health System answered the urgent call to provide continued health care access for the community,” the press release states. “The launch of the clinic was a significant undertaking, involving extensive preparation, regulatory compliance and staffing efforts.
“Opening a rural health clinic is never easy, but our team met the challenge with dedication and compassion.”
Other providers in the Herington market caused a decline in patient volume at the Herington clinic and affected its ability to operate in a financially responsible manner, the press release states.
An employee of the Herington clinic was heartbroken by news of the clinic’s closure.
“We have a community that has uncertain health care,” she said. “We have patients we do home visits for, and they’re going to be left out in the cold.”
Although employees were told they could apply for comparable openings at other Memorial Health System facilities, that won’t work for her, she said. Jobs in her category are not posted. She also has four children to consider.
“It’s like they’re just washing their hands of it,” she said. “It amazes me that they decided this in this short of a time.”
Rural Healthcare Group chief executive Trent Skaggs said he was surprised the clinic in Herington was closing.
Skaggs said his group’s financial feasibility study, to be used in arranging financing for the emergency hospital, is expected to be done Friday. The facility is not likely to be built until the second half of 2026.
“We have not considered opening a clinic early,” Skaggs said.
The planned 7,520-square-foot emergency hospital would offer outpatient services such as diagnostic imaging, laboratory testing, and specialty care. The facility would be in Herington’s industrial park and would cost $7 million to $8 million.
Herington Hospital closed in October, 2023, after Emprise Bank filed at $1.9 million suit against the hospital and clinics it operated in Hillsboro and Junction City.