What Does it Cost to Operate a Rural Free-Standing Emergency Department (RFED)?

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About this project

In recent months, there have been numerous media reports of rural hospital closures and their adverse effect on communities.
Contact: George H. Pink, PhD

Research staff: Kristie Thompson, MA

Project funded: September 2014

Project completed: December 2015

In the face of hospital closure, one alternative for maintaining access to healthcare is a rural free-standing emergency department (RFED). The goal of this study is to estimate the costs of a RFED. The project will use data from Medicare Cost Reports, the Frontier examine rural hospitals that ceased to provide acute inpatient care between 2010 and 2014.

Publications

• Estimated Costs of Rural Freestanding Emergency Departments
  Policy Brief
  North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Date: 11/2015
  A rural freestanding emergency department (RFED) is one potential model for providing emergency services in areas where hospitals have closed. The North Carolina Rural Health Research Program’s Findings Brief, Estimated Costs of Rural Freestanding Emergency Departments explains the RFED concept and estimates RFED costs in three scenarios.