The intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital Independence in Kansas, which closes this weekend. Without patients, the unit has been used for storage. Credit: Amy Stroth/The New York Times

The intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital Independence in Kansas, which closes this weekend. Without patients, the unit has been used for storage.
Credit: Amy Stroth/The New York Times

INDEPENDENCE, Kan. — The rooms in the intensive care unit are filled with folded-up walkers and moving boxes. In the lobby, plaques and portraits have been taken off the wall. By this weekend, the last patients will be discharged and Mercy Hospital Independence will close, joining dozens of rural hospitals around the country that have not been able to withstand the financial and demographic challenges buffeting them.

The hospital and its outpatient clinics, owned by the Mercy health care system in St. Louis, was where people in this city of 9,000 turned for everything from sore throats to emergency treatment after a car crash. Now, many say they […]

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