Official: Pauls Valley Regional Medical Center Couldn't Secure Large Donors

The Pauls Valley Regional Medical Center has been shut down.

The announcement came Friday and comes after battling funding concerns even to a point where staff was going without pay.

Officials said there were no other options to save the hospital from the financial struggles.

“We've closed the hospital. We're going to go through, from a compliance perspective, all the things that you have to do to secure the property,” Frank Avignone, Chief Executive Officer of Pauls Valley Hospital, said.

Strong emotions and even more tears were displayed as the vote came to close operations down.

The community did rally behind the hospital and tried to raise funds any way they could.

“But at the end of the day, we needed a large donor and every large donor that we worked with, pretty much shied away from actually coming into rescue the hospital. It's not a criticism. It's just fact,” Avignone said.

Even the GoFundMe page they started didn't raise enough funds for the area's only hospital. 

Now, emergency crews will have to rely on neighboring towns with an ambulance that can respond to Pauls Valley.

“This hospital shutting down means that people in this community are at risk. Because our emergency room is closed, there is a very good chance that someone will die because this hospital is not here,” Avignone said.

More than 130 employees are now without jobs, and the nearest hospitals, in Arbuckle and Purcell, are each about 30 minutes away.

There is hope that other medical groups will express interest in building out in Pauls Valley.