KENNETT, Mo. (AP) – The sudden closure of a hospital has left some expectant
mothers in the Missouri Bootheel region scrambling for care in an area that
already has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the U.S.
St. Louis Public Radio reports that Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in
Kennett announced recently that it will close in July.
The closure will leave the surrounding area in southeast Missouri without an
OB-GYN. A hospital in neighboring Pemiscot County is taking on the Kennett
hospital’s OB-GYN and four other physicians, but that hospital is struggling to
stay afloat, too.
The closure is critical because Dunklin County has some of the worst birth
outcomes in the state. Babies die at twice the national average and one-in-five
black children are boon premature.
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