If you were to have an emergency in Mexico, the closest hospital would probably be in Columbia or Hannibal. Access to emergency medical care in Audrain County had been shaky with ownership of the hospital changing hands frequently. Now, it is nonexistent.  

Audrain Medical Center’s complicated history

The Audrain Medical Center (AMC) first opened in 1918 as a 70-bed hospital serving mid-Missouri. In 2013, AMC employed over 500 employees including 40 physicians and nurse practitioners. In the last decade the medical center has been through several ownerships, each seemingly more eager than the last to foist it into someone else’s lap.

SSM Health assumed ownership of the medical center along with its nine MedChoice rural clinics in April of 2013 after signing the letter of intent back in February of that same year. At the time, SSM owned and operated 17 hospitals in Wisconsin, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Illinois. Due to its proximity to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Jefferson City, SSM formed a Mid-Missouri region which was overseen by former president Brent VanConia. AMC was subsequently renamed St. Mary’s-Audrain.

Almost eight years later, Kansas City based medical startup group Noble Health, which had recently taken control of Callaway Community Hospital in Fulton, had its sights set on Mexico’s 100-year-old hospital. In January of 2021 SSM Health officially signed over ownership of St. Mary’s-Audrain and its clinics to Noble. The reason behind the sale was “changing economic circumstances,” according to Joseph A Corrado, MD, a general surgeon in Mexico.

Noble came to Mexico with big hopes for medical care promising a revival of the medical center starting with the switch to an electronic records system. In a Jefferson City News Tribune article, Don Petterson, former executive chairman urged St. Mary’s-Audrain patients to give Noble a chance. 

They got their chance, perhaps due to a glaring lack of other options, because unfortunately for residents and caregivers, this is Audrain County’s only hospital.

Noble health tanked what was left of the medical center through gross mismanagement. It began with suspended services of the Audrain and Callaway County hospitals in March, 2022 originally citing an “IT issue” in a Facebook post. In April, 2022 Noble was facing bankruptcy and furloughed 175 employees. 

Platinum Health was next in line to assume responsibility that April and by September, the furloughed employees were fired. Despite the plans to reopen, the hospital remained closed and now faces bankruptcy and lawsuits from disgruntled employees who had not been paid. So, like its predecessors, Platinum decided to sell. 

In December 2022, Clifford Sullivan owned both the Callaway and Audrain hospitals until Ziva Medical bought them in 2023. Ziva fired 30 more employees due to inheriting the unkept facility and its lawsuits. And now, with the inevitable closure of Ziva, Audrain County and the City of Mexico bought the facility at foreclosure. 

A glimmer of hope 

The City of Mexico City Council along with the Audrain County Commissioners, Audrain County Board of Health and Boone Health called to order a very special meeting at City Hall Monday, Oct. 14.

“This is a very unique and even historical meeting for Mexico and Audrain County,” says Mayor Vicki Briggs.

After viewing a Mexico. promotional video, the meeting began with City Manager Bruce Slagle outlining the events leading up to the bankruptcy and foreclosure of Mexico’s local hospital. Recognizing the dire need for access to general acute care hospital facilities, the City of Mexico and Audrain County Health Department created the government healthcare committee. The committee then worked to hire a team to conduct a “healthcare study”.

“The study completed in September of 2023 provided an independent marketing assessment and financial feasibility which determined that a critical access hospital is feasible and a viable option for Mexico.” says Slagle

After the confirmation that Mexico could support a critical access hospital, the committee began meeting with established healthcare systems in early 2024. Boone Health expressed a strong interest entering a nondisclosure agreement with the government healthcare committee in April, 2024. During the meeting, Boone Health signed a formal letter of intent to continue discussions in establishing a new, Medicare-certified, critical access care facility in Mexico.

“The partnership between a facility here in Audrain County and what they have in Boone County seems like a natural fit to me,” says presiding commissioner Alan Winders. 

Current Boone Health Hospital administrator Brady Dubois works with many medical providers who live in Mexico and commute to Columbia and feels a personal connection to those who want to see medical care come back home.

Critical access is a designation from CMS that does not allow for more than 25 hospital beds without limiting what providers can do procedurally. This designation does limit the length of stay to an average of below 72 hours. Boone Health expressed their desire to keep as much in Audrain as possible but those needing an extended stay will be better off in a tertiary level facility where specialists can be there every day.

“Our goal is to make sure that we have a fantastic emergency room that supports the EMS and supports the city so they can come in 24 hours a day seven days a week and be seen by an emergency medicine physician,” says Dubois.

The current plan is to build an entirely new facility where the existing hospital now stands since the current facility is in need of expensive repairs, out of date and quite frankly, too large for what Boone has in mind.

Boone Health is still a little ways away from breaking ground on a new facility but this letter of intent is certainly encouraging for the residents of Audrain County who have been without for long enough.