'We had hope for a little while': Rosebud hospital under scrutiny again

Monday, August 6, 2018

Leaders of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe are wondering whether the federal government will ever provide adequate health care on their South Dakota reservation.

The Rosebud Hospital had to close its emergency room in December 2016 for putting patients' lives at risk. During the seven-month shutdown, at least nine people died while being transported to facilities farther away from the reservation and at least five mothers gave birth in transit.

The emergency room finally reopened in July 2017 but hasn't seen major improvements, according to the tribe. Federal inspectors returned to the hospital late last month, The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported, fueling fears about a lack of progress.

“I guess I got my hopes up a little bit there,” President William Kindle told the paper. “I shouldn’t have got my hopes up.”

"We had hope for a little while there, but it didn't last long," Treasurer Wayne Boyd told the paper.

Inspections by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services don't usually turn out so well for IHS facilities in the Great Plains. In the last three years alone, at least four facilities in the region, which includes Nebraska and South Dakota, have been faulted for providing inadequate care.

One of them, the Omaha-Winnebago Hospital in Nebraska, lost its certification three summers ago after a CMS inspection. The facility was unable to bill Medicare or Medicaid for services, so it lost out on a major source of revenue.

The Winnebago Tribe has since taken control of the facility, now known as the Twelve Clans Unity Hospital, under a self-determination agreement with the IHS. The tribe hopes to regain the certification that was lost.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, meanwhile, is part of a joint effort to take over the Sioux San Hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota, another facility that has been threatened by CMS.

Read More on the Story:
Feds again probe problems at government-run South Dakota hospital (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader August 4, 2018)