NEWS
Faith Community Bowie ER to close Oct. 6
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
Just about a month shy of celebrating its one-year anniversary, Faith Community Emergency Room in Bowie will be closing as of 7 a.m. on Oct. 6.
Frank L. Beaman, chief executive officer of Faith Community Health System, confirmed the closure to The Bowie News through a statement on Monday. Several employees of the ER had already contacted the Bowie News about the closure.
In the statement Beaman said the evaluations of productivity, utilization and economics of the facility and comparing the actual data again projections revealed, “The facility is not meeting the projections required to maintain operations.”
It continues the goal was to provide Level IV trauma emergency care, and that endeavor was successful with positive feedback. However, the utilization and referrals to Faith Community Health System’s main campus did not materialize. Faith also attempted to convert the facility under a new federal designation known as Rural Emergency Hospital, but the attempts were unsuccessful due to the way the legislation was written. It only allowed for conversion of an existing acute care hospital and does not provide for designation of a new ER like what was opened in Bowie. This eliminated any federal funding.
“Operating what effectively is a free-standing ER is simply not sustainable without a greater level of financial support from the community,” stated Beaman.
The ER’s grand opening took place on Oct. 23, 2023 after more than two years of work remodeling and repairing the old hospital. In mid-August 2021 Faith Community Health System officials announced its intentions to open the ER as an arm of its Jacksboro facility.
Bowie had been without any local hospital or ER care since early 2020 when Central Hospital closed. The nearest ER care came at Nocona General Hospital during that period. The fully operational Bowie Memorial Hospital closed on Nov. 16, 2015 after nearly 50 years of service to the area.
Read more about this closure in the Wednesday Bowie News.
Photo – Grand opening day tours of the Bowie ER last October. (Bowie News file photo)
Montague County Judge Kevin Benton issues an emergency order for a ban on all outdoor burning at 11:15 a.m. on Aug. 4.
This order will expired in seven days until additional action is taken.
The order states the imminent threat of disaster from wildfire and drought continues to exist, mitigation of these factors prohibits the burning of trash and domestic waste, maintenance or land clearing, brush, campfires and trees.
This order limits outdoor burning activities related to public health and safety authorized by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for firefighter training, public utility, natural gas pipeline or mining operations, harvest or agricultural crops or welding allowed with the following restrictions:
Area should be clean 15 feet or more on welding site; there should be at least 55 gallons of water with the ability to pressurize and spray welding site; an additional person should be on site with welder to spot fires and a fire extinguisher on site.
Bowie Elementary School recently received a parking lot refresh! With this refresh the drop off and pick up procedures will be changing. Parents will enter Cosby Lane from Upper Montague Road. You will follow the arrows. We ask that our Lil Jackrabbits are in the backseat driver side. This will ensure the safety of our staff and your child. Once your child is unloaded, you may exit LEFT or RIGHT onto Lovers Lane.
For PICKUP parents will form TWO LINES on COSBY Lane. The TWO lanes will merge into one at the curve. There will be one line on the straight away. Staff will load your child.
We know this will be a very new procedure for BES, so please be patient as we all get used to this. We will release a video later to show you STEP by STEP.
We will issue car tags to help this process go smoothly! This will be for PK-2nd grade
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