Nearly 90 rural hospitals have closed in the U.S. since 2010 and many more are at risk of shutting, a trend that has health experts and patients worried.
An October 29, 2018 New York Times article written by Austin Frakt, adjunct associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, looked at the factors driving rural hospital closures and how they may impact patient care.
Frakt cited studies that found more than half of rural counties now lack obstetric services and that hospital closures are increasing the distance pregnant women must travel for delivery. Another study showed that higher-risk, preterm births are more likely in counties without obstetric units, he wrote.
As for why rural hospitals are closing, contributing factors vary and include politics, rising health care costs, and shrinking rural populations, Frakt said.
Read the New York Times article: A Sense of Alarm as Rural Hospitals Keep Closing