Mexico, Mo.-based Audrain Community Hospital, shuttered since 2022, has been purchased for $1.1 million by Audrain County, Mo., in a joint effort among the county government, the city of Mexico and the Audrain Community Hospital Foundation.
"We feel that the purchase itself … will give us greater control over our future when it comes to providing long-term, sustainable healthcare for the residents of Audrain County," Craig Brace, administrator and CEO of the Audrain County Health Department, told Becker's.
Audrain Community Hospital closed in late March 2022 to restructure operations and become financially viable. The hospital has since had four different owners but remained closed.
Now acting as the hospital's fifth owner, Mr. Brace said the goal is to find an operator with a long-term commitment.
"We are not looking for anyone to take over the old hospital," he said. "To reopen that hospital, in our opinion, is not feasible. The hospital was built for 1990s medicine, not for 2025 medicine."
One scenario for the hospital site is to demolish the existing facility to make way for a new hospital operator to come in and build a critical access hospital.
To that end, the county, city and hospital foundation have been in ongoing discussions with Columbia, Mo.-based Boone Health to develop this type of hospital.
"We're still very supportive of Boone's level of commitment to come into the community to build a critical access hospital," Mr. Brace said. "The more we can remove obstacles and clear the pathway for Boone to do that, that is in our best long term interest."