Juliette Mullin, senior editor

On Tuesday, "Amazing Grace" played in the halls of Doctors Medical Center (DMC) as its staff members hugged and talked about the 60-year-old hospital's closure and the end of an era for the city of San Pablo, California, which will now go without a hospital or access to timely emergency care.

But the moment came as no surprise. In fact, the closure was the culmination of years of efforts to keep the facility open, and then months of work to shut it down.