Impact of Rural and Urban Hospital Closures on Inpatient Mortality

A study from the University of Washington studied 92 hospital closures in California between 1995 and 2011. As a group, the closures didn’t show much impact on mortality rates. However, estimating differential impacts of rural and urban closures shows that rural closures increase inpatient mortality by 0.46% points (an increase of 5.9%). Results differ across diagnostic conditions: rural hospital closures increased mortality for stroke patients by 3.1% and for AMI (acute myocardial infarction) patients by 4.5%, and decreased mortality for asthma/COPD patients by 8.8%.

Source: Impact of Rural and Urban Hospital Closures on Inpatient Mortality