"Rural hospitals must leverage the full resources of their communities in order to survive." That's the "most critical" lesson learned from last year's closing of Williamson Memorial Hospital in West Virginia, Taylor Sisk writes for National Geographic in a story about Appalachian hospital closures.

The hospital is "scheduled to reopen, most likely in the fall," Sisk reports. It has been bought by the Williamson Health and Wellness Center, "a federally qualified health center that over the past few years has been a catalyst in the community for a wide range of public health initiatives" in a county ranked the state's second unhealthiest. But keeping people healthy also keeps them out of hospital, so "The health of the community and viability of its hospital will be dependent on a successful symbiosis."

The solution to the hospital's problem is not typical, but could provide a lesson to rural communities at a time when rural hospital closures are accelerating and one in five rural hospitals have been estimated to be at risk of closing due to financial difficulties.

Read the full article about rural hospitals by Al Cross at The Rural Blog.