By: Keith Klein (Photo: Indiana Public Media)
The Indiana Hospital Association reports hospitals – especially those in rural communities – are facing significant losses because of the pandemic.
Rising drug costs, procuring personal protective equipment, changing operating procedures, and decreasing patients in other service lines are all to blame, officials say.
Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes was forced to furlough 200 workers because patient volumes were down 50 percent during the heart of the pandemic. Good Samaritan still faces an $18 million shortfall.
Data shows the real struggle comes in rural communities with critical access hospitals.
Indiana’s 35 critical access hospitals reported spending nearly 30 percent more than they made.
The Association says if action isn’t taken to help these facilities, cuts and closures could be inevitable.
The woman charged with driving her car into a crowd of protesters in Bloomington, July 6th wants the prosecutor to charge a man she said punched and shattered her windshield.
Christi J. Bennett of Scottsburg filed a police report detailing the damage to her car. BPD Capt. Ryan Pedigo said video taken July 6 clearly shows a 37-year-old man hitting the windshield with his fist during the melee, breaking the glass.
A man approached the car and punched it as it drove away. “We were able to identify the man,” Pedigo said. A report requesting a citation for a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief was forwarded to the Monroe County Prosecutor.
Bennett, 66, was arrested on July 8. She faces four charges: two counts of criminal recklessness and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident.
A tattoo shop in Lafayette is helping people change by removing racist tattoos for free.
“It’s something that I’ve always offered,” said the owner of Soldier Mike’s Tattoos & Piercings, Michael Lance.
“People do change over time,” Lance said. “There’s no room in the world for racism and hate.”
Lance said he’s done more than 100 tattoos since he started the service.
