Rural southwest Virginia county marks hospital reopening

PENNINGTON GAP, Va. (AP) — A sprawling southwest Virginia county that lost its only hospital eight years ago celebrated the reopening of the facility this week. Lee County Community Hospital, a 10-bed facility serving southwest Virginia and southeast Kentucky, officially opened its doors to the public on Thursday. Gov. Ralph Northam and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner were among the dignitaries who attended a ribbon-cutting Friday. The hospital’s reopening is a rare success story for a rural hospital; over the past decade, scores of rural hospitals in the U.S. have closed. Community leaders worked for years to find a way to reopen the Lee County facility.