WLKM Radio 95.9 FM
Sturgis City Commission members voted last week to approve a $645,000 loan for Sturgis Hospital.
The allocation is intended to keep the hospital’s doors open just long enough for potential, special funding from the state to be considered.
An $11 million allocation from the state for Sturgis Hospital came to the attention of the Sturgis City Commission and hospital officials, moments before the commission was to vote on a small, immediate-need loan to keep the health facility open.
The two-fold financial lifeboat was to keep Sturgis Hospital open until it could convert into a rural-emergency hospital.
Such a facility has more capability of operating in the black and be more attractive to buyers, something hospital officials said they have been looking at for several years.
The facility has been able to remain open. However, the hospital’s inability to pay its loan obligation in March made it necessary for the hospital to ask the city for a loan and look to the state to keep Sturgis Hospital out of bankruptcy.
