Rural Hospital Support for Emergency Medcial Services

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Rural Hospital Support for Emergency Medcial Services overview

Prehospital emergency care is an important component of a comprehensive health care system. Rural EMS agencies face continual challenges to ensure a qualified workforce to meet prehospital emergency care needs. While most EMS agencies function as independent entities or are affiliated with fire departments, affiliation with a local hospital is one option for sustaining rural EMS. Little is known about the rural hospitals that operate EMS units, and most of what is known has focused on Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). We used Medicare Hospital Cost Reports to identify rural hospitals, with and without EMS, for this study. Study questions included: what proportion of rural hospitals support or operate EMS units; has this changed in last five years; what are the characteristics of rural hospitals that support or operate EMS; what are the financial investments made by these hospitals in EMS; and what describes the communities in which these hospitals are located?