Characteristics of Communities Served by Hospitals at High Risk of Financial Distress
Since 2005, there have been 124 rural hospital closures in the United States. Rural hospital closures can intensify already challenging health and economic issues for rural communities. People served by rural hospitals tend to be older, poorer, have access to fewer health care professionals, and have overall worse health outcomes than those served by urban hospitals. To better understand the causes of hospital closure, the NC Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center wrote the brief, Characteristics of Communities Served by Hospitals at High Risk of Financial Distress, which compares the characteristics of communities served by rural hospitals at high risk of financial distress to those served by rural hospitals that are not at high risk of financial distress.
For more information on rural hospitals and financial distress, here is a list of our related publications.
- GM Holmes, BG Kaufman, GH Pink. Predicting Financial Distress in Rural Hospitals, Journal of Rural Health, Summer 2017;33(3):239-249.
- SR Thomas, GM Holmes, GH Pink. To What Extent do Community Characteristics Explain Differences in Closure among Financially Distressed Rural Hospitals? Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved Nov 2016 Supplement;(27,4):194-203.
- Trends in Risk of Financial Distress among Rural Hospitals (October 2016) Kaufman BG, Randolph R, Pink G, Holmes M. FB 133.
- Geographic Variation in Risk of Financial Distress among Rural Hospitals (January 2016) Kaufman B, Rutledge R, Pink G, Holmes M. FB 127.
- Prediction of Financial Distress among Rural Hospitals (January 2016) Kaufman B, Pink G, Holmes M. FB 126.
- Change in Profitability and Financial Distress of Critical Access Hospitals from Loss of Cost-Based Reimbursement. (December 2013). Holmes GM, Pink G. FB 112.