[03/12/03]Emergency services are available again at the Sharkey-Issaquena Community Hospital now that insurance has been found and bought.

Hospital administrator Jerry Keever said the new insurance, provided by Houston-based Everest Insurance Company for the hospital serving Rolling Fork, will cost four times the $60,000 the hospital paid its former insurer, Reciprocal of America.

“I just hope this doesn’t happen to other hospitals across the state,” Keever said. “We were fortunate to have the cash flow available to pay the premium, but other hospitals may not.”

The ER was closed from Feb. 24 until March 7, leaving South Delta residents with the choice of 45-minute trips north or south on U.S. 61 to Vicksburg or Greenville.

Reciprocal, a Virginia-based company, notified in January the hospital and one of two doctors’ offices in Rolling Fork, Delta Care Rural Health Clinic, that it would not renew policies. The clinic closed Feb. 14 and remains closed.

While the emergency room was closed, Delta Regional Medical Center of Greenville provided ambulance service to the area.

The hospital serves 6,580 residents of Sharkey and 2,274 in Issaquena.

Because nurses and physicians work in the hospital and the ER, no employees lost jobs during the closing. The hospital has about 60 employees, eight of whom are physicians, Keever said. Six of the physicians are contracted and work only nights and weekends.

River Region Health System in Vicksburg, which is insured through its parent company, Triad Hospital Incorporated, employs about 60 physicians. The Vicksburg hospital’s medical malpractice insurance has increased by 64 percent since August 2002, said marketing director Diane Gawronski.