August 20, 2018
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
The Sayre hospital has been open a little over a year and a month, but it’s closing again.
The hospital had been closed about a year and a half before that operating as Sayre Memorial Hospital.
The lastest group of owners made the announcement this afternoon with a brief statement that was issued to the public by one of the hospital leaders, Douglas A. Swim. It’s all of two sentences.
“To whom it may concern, nationwide, too many rural community hospitals are facing a reality of permanent closure as a result of financial insolvency. Sayre Community Hospital, Sayre, Oklahoma, regretfully announces it will also clsoe, effective August 20, 2018, at 5 pm.”
The closure caught everyone off guard as the financial pictured darkened seemingly in one day, today, Monday. It began as a sudden closure of the Emergency Room as a piece of equipment was down with a broken part, effectively closing the Emergency Room. It ended with the hospital’s closure.
The latest group to buy the hospital, Synergic Resource Partners, bought the hospital from Frazer Bank in Altus as the hospital was going through receivership following the financial problems associated with the previous owner, Bob Hicks who bought the hospital with a silent business partner. They opened the doors in early July of 2017.
It was July 17, 2016, when Hicks first sat down with representatives from the former hospital, Sayre Memorial Hospital to discuss a possible purchase of the building.
Synergic Resource Partners came in on May 1 of this year as the new operating company and bought the hospital May 25 and soon laid off a number of people trying to keep the hospital afloat.
The earlier hospital, Sayre Memorial, closed its doors on February 1, 2016. It had been owned by the City of Sayre and utilized a number of management contractors over the years.
Sayre Community Hospital was planning a blood drive organized by the Oklahoma Blood Institute however, blood donors are being asked to still give blood by driving to Elk City where a previously planned drive was already scheduled. The drive is at First United Methodist Church.
OBI officials say donors can donate in honor of the Elk City Fire Chief who is battling Stage 4 liver and colon cancer. They say they’ll have extra staff on hand at the First United Methodist Church in Elk City due to the cancellation of the drive in Sayre.
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