{"id":31878,"date":"2019-09-24T16:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T21:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31878"},"modified":"2019-09-25T11:05:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T16:05:24","slug":"the-collapse-of-a-hospital-empire-and-towns-left-in-the-wreckage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/09\/24\/the-collapse-of-a-hospital-empire-and-towns-left-in-the-wreckage\/","title":{"rendered":"The collapse of a hospital empire \u2014 and towns left in the wreckage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Heidi de Marco \/ KHN<\/p>\n

I-70 Community Hospital in Sweet Springs, Mo., is one of eight hospitals owned or managed by Miami businessman Jorge A. Perez that closed in recent years. Twelve Perez-affiliated hospitals are in bankruptcy.<\/p>\n<\/div>

SWEET SPRINGS, Mo. \u2014 The money was so good in the beginning, and it seemed it might gush forever, right through tiny country hospitals in Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and into the coffers of companies controlled by Jorge A. Perez, his family and business partners.<\/p>

It was his \u201csecret sauce,\u201d the rotund Miami entrepreneur would smilingly tell people in their no-stoplight towns. The money-making ventures he proposed sounded complicated, sure, but he said they would bring in enough cash to save their hospital and dozens, even hundreds, of good jobs in rural towns where gainful employment is hard to come by.<\/p>

And, in town after town, the people believed him. He offered what they could not resist: hope, and the promise of survival<\/a>.<\/p>