Ritzville Hospital Plans To Remain Open As It Seeks New Designation To Increase Funding

After announcing earlier this month that it might close at the start of 2026 due to financial concerns, East Adams Rural Healthcare (EARH) in Ritzville says it now plans to stay open with a change in designation and scaled down services.

At a community meeting held last Thursday (Nov. 20) in Ritzville, the hospital announced its intent to re-classify from a critical access facility to a rural emergency hospital - a move which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services say could net EARH an extra $3.4 million in federal funding.

To make the change, the hospital would be required to discontinue offering inpatient care and "swing" beds - both of which are designed to retain patients at the facility following acute treatments and rehabilitation.

Swing beds are those used to provide various types of care based on patient needs as their condition changes.

The rural emergency hospital designation was formed by the federal government two years ago as a way to prevent most of the hospitals in rural settings throughout the U.S. from potentially closing.

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Facilities that qualify for the distinction are allowed to provide emergency and observational services but not any inpatient care or outpatient services which exceed an average per-patient visit of 24 hours annually.

Fewer than 50 hospitals nationwide have applied for and been granted the designation, and EARH would be the first such hospital in Washington State, should the change eventually go through.

EARH board member Eric Walker tells the Yakima Herald Republic that the move would require some employee layoffs and other downsizing but didn't offer any estimates about how many workers would be affected nor any specifics about what else might be scaled back at the hospital.

The hospital currently employs 108 people.

Since EARH is the first rural facility in Washington to seek the newly-offered status, state approval would be required, as would the adoption of specific rules and oversight for the hospital once its status had been officially re-designated.

Hospital officials are hopeful that Attorney General Nick Brown will ink a 30-day emergency order which will let EARH begin reorganizing to operate under the new designation.

In addition to the change in status, the hospital is also pursuing two levy increases which would bring in an additional $500,000 annually and could appear before voters in February.

EARH's board of directors claims the hospital's previous administrators withheld information regarding its troubled financial state, including $13.4 million in losses from the past three years.

Hospital officials say on average, over 100 people currently seek treatment at the facility's emergency room every month but the rate of use for its other services is quite low.

EARH administrators say they currently have enough operating capital to remain open at least through January, 2026, but it's yet unknown if any temporary closure might be necessary - even if the hospital is ultimately successful in changing its designation.

EARH's Ritzville location is the only hospital in Adams County besides Othello Community Hospital, and if it closes, the nearest emergency room would be 45 miles away at Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake.