Research Alert: April 30, 2015

A Comparison of Closed Rural Hospitals and Perceived Impact

From 2010 through 2014, 47 rural hospitals ceased providing inpatient services in 23 states across the country ("closed"). Among the 47 closed hospitals, 26 hospitals no longer provide any health care services ("abandoned"), and 21 continue to provide a mix of health services but no inpatient care ("converted").

These closures have affected approximately 800,000 people in the markets with abandoned hospitals and 700,000 people in the markets with converted hospitals.

This policy brief compares selected characteristics of abandoned rural hospitals and their markets to those of converted rural hospitals.

• How do abandoned rural hospitals compare to converted rural hospitals?
• What has been the perceived impact of rural hospital closures?

Additional Resources of Interest:

• More information about the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
• More information from the Rural Health Information Hub's topic guides: Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Health Policy