ABILENE, TX – A physician-owned specialty hospital closed last month after it became the center of controversy when one of its patients died after experiencing a medical emergency that required a transfer to another facility.
The 14-bed West Texas Hospital attracted national attention because its staff had to dial 911 when they were unable to treat a 44-year-old patient who went into respiratory shock.
The case attracted renewed questions from three Congressmen who had long voiced concerns about the potential for self-referrals to physician-owned specialty hospitals. It also was the focus of a recent article in the New York Times.
The hospital closed down after its owners decided they would not appeal a decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to revoke the hospital’s Medicare certification at the end of March, according to a story in The Abilene Reporter.
The hospital’s Web site also was closed and provided no additional information as of early April.
Before the Web site had been shuttered, it indicated that the facility had opened in the spring of 2005. It listed surgical services as its primary focus, and the Web site reported that it had about 60 physicians on staff, although none specialized in emergency medicine.