Standard & Poor’s last week lowered its rating on the Nevada Regional Medical Center into junk bond territory due to ongoing strains on the balance sheet.
The agency knocked $21.7 million of bonds down to BB-plus from BBB-minus. The medical center serves a rural region in west central Missouri.
“NRMC’s decreasing patient volumes, physician losses, and worsening margins have begun to strain the balance sheet,” analyst Robert Dobbins wrote.
Patient volumes dropped following the medical center’s loss of a general surgeon and two primary care physicians in 2009 and they have not rebounded.
