La Grange’s Only Hospital Closed Last Year. Now an Auction Will Decide Its Fate.

Grass has grown wild and tall around what was once St. Mark’s Medical Center. A blue tarp covers a hanging entrance sign, and a piece of plywood on the front door carries an announcement that the hospital is closed. Its hallways are littered with empty beds, medicine carts, and wheelchairs.The shuttering of St. Mark’s last October left a hole in access to trauma care in La Grange, a small town between Austin and Houston. Roughly 40,000 Texans in the surrounding rural communities had counted on the hospital’s services, and the majority of patients were older adults with low incomes. While the area has a handful of urgent care clinics and physician offices, ambulances must now transport patients with more serious conditions to hospitals elsewhere.St. Mark’s…

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