Associations of U.S. hospital closure (2007-2018) with area socioeconomic disadvantage and racial/ethnic composition.

PURPOSE: To examine whether hospital closure is associated with high levels of area socioeconomic disadvantage and racial/ethnic minority composition. METHODS: Pooled cross-sectional analysis (2007-2018) of 6467 U.S. hospitals from the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey, comparing hospital population characteristics of closed hospitals to all remaining open hospitals. We used multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models to assess closure as a function of population characteristics, including area deprivation index ([ADI], a composite measure of socioeconomic disadvantage), racial/ethnic composition, and rural classification, nesting hospitals within hospital service areas (HSAs) and hospital referral regions. Secondary analyses examined public or private hospital type. RESULTS: Overall, 326 (5.0%) of 6467 U.S. hospitals closed during the study period. In multivariable models, hospitals in HSAs with a higher burden of socioeconomic disadvantage (per 10% above median ADI ZIP codes, AOR 1.05; 95% CI, 1.01-1.09) and Black Non-Hispanic composition (highest quartile, AOR 4.03; 95% CI, 2.62-6.21) had higher odds of closure. We did not observe disparities in closure by Hispanic/Latino composition or rurality. Disparities persisted for Black Non-Hispanic communities, even among HSAs with the lowest burden of disadvantage. CONCLUSIONS: Disproportionate hospital closure in communities with higher socioeconomic disadvantage and Black racial composition raises concerns about unequal loss of healthcare resources in the U.S.

The Basaglia Law. Returning dignity to psychiatric patients: the historical, political and social factors that led to the closure of psychiatric hospitals in Italy in 1978.

Law no. 180 of 1978, which led to the closure of psychiatric hospitals in Italy, has often been erroneously associated with one man, Franco Basaglia, but the reality is much more complex. Not only were countless people involved in the movement that led to the approval of this law, but we should also take into account the historical, social, and political factors that came into play. The 1970s in Italy were a time of change and political ferment which made this psychiatric revolution possible there and nowhere else in the world.

The effect of public hospital closure on the death of long-term inpatients in Korea.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the changes in health outcomes and the patterns of medical institution utilization among patients with long-term stays in public hospitals following the closure of a public medical center. It also sought to present a proposal regarding the role of public hospitals in countries with healthcare systems predominantly driven by private entities, such as Korea. METHODS: To assess the impact of a public healthcare institution closure on health outcomes in a specific region, we utilized nationally representative health insurance claims data. A retrospective cohort study was conducted for this analysis. RESULTS: An analysis of the medical utilization patterns of patients after the closure of Jinju Medical Center showed that 67.4% of the total medical usage was redirected to long-term care hospitals. This figure is notably high in comparison to the 20% utilization rate of nursing hospitals observed among patients from other medical facilities. These results indicate that former patients of Jinju Medical Center may have experienced limitations in accessing necessary medical services beyond nursing care. After accounting for relevant mortality factors, the analysis showed that the mortality rate in closed public hospitals was 2.47 (95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.96) times higher than in private hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: The closure of public medical institutions has resulted in unmet healthcare needs, and an observed association was observed with increased mortality rates. It is essential to define the role and objectives of public medical institutions, taking into account the distribution of healthcare resources and the conditions of the population.

Efficiency effects of public hospital closures in the context of public hospital reform: a multistep efficiency analysis.

In the wake of hospital reforms introduced in 2011 in Turkey, public hospitals were grouped into associations with joint management and some shared operational and administrative functions, similar in some ways to hospital trusts in the English National Health Service. Reorganization of public hospitals effect hospital and market area characteristics and existence of hospitals. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of closure on competitive hospital performances. Using administrative data from Turkish Public Hospital Statistical Yearbooks for the years 2005 to 2007 and 2014 to 2017, we conducted a three-step efficiency analysis by incorporating data envelopment analysis (DEA) and propensity score matching techniques, followed by a difference-in-differences (DiD) regression. First, we used bootstrapped DEA to calculate the efficiency scores of hospitals that were located near hospitals that had been closed. Second, we used nearest neighbour propensity score matching to form control groups and ensure that any differences between these and the intervention groups could be attributed to being near a hospital that had closed rather than differences in hospital and market area characteristics. Lastly, we employed DiD regression analysis to explore whether being near a closed hospital had an impact on the efficiency of the surviving hospitals while considering the effect of the 2011 hospital reform policies. To shed light on a potential time lag between hospital closure and changes in efficiency, we used various periods for comparison. Our results suggest that the efficiency of public hospitals in Turkey increased in hospitals that were located near hospitals that closed in Turkey from 2011. Hospital closure improves the efficiency of competitive hospitals under hospital market reforms. Future studies may wish to examine the efficiency effects of government and private sector collaboration on competition in the hospital market.

The effect of rural hospital closures on maternal and infant health.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of rural hospital closures on infant and maternal health outcomes. DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SETTING: We used restricted National Vital Statistics System birth and linked birth and infant death data, merged with county-level hospital closures from the Sheps Center for the period 2005-2019. STUDY DESIGN: We used difference-in-difference and event study methods, employing new estimators that account for staggered treatment timing. Our key outcome variables were prenatal care initiation; birth outcomes (<2500 g; <1500 g; <37 weeks; <28 weeks; 5-min Apgar); delivery outcomes (cesarean, induction, hospital birth); and infant death (<1 year of birth; <=30 days of birth; <=7 days of birth; <= 1 day after birth). DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: The analysis covered all births in the United States in rural counties (by rurality: all, most, moderately rural). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found evidence that fewer individuals delivered in their county of residence after a hospital closure, and this was most pronounced for residents of the most rural counties (29%-52% decline (p < 0.01) in the likelihood of delivering in their residence county). We found that hospital closures worsen prenatal, infant, and delivery outcomes for residents of moderately rural counties but improve those outcomes for those in the most rural counties. In moderately rural counties, low birth weight births increased by 10.4% (p < 0.01). We found suggestive evidence of decreased infant deaths in the most rural counties. This pattern of findings is consistent with closures leading residents of the most rural counties to seek care in a different county and residents of moderately rural counties to seek care at a different hospital in the same county. CONCLUSIONS: Loss of hospital care has meaningful effects on the rural populations; investigating rural counties in aggregate may miss nuanced differences in the effects on the margin of rurality.

Perceptions of access to care after a rural hospital closure in an economically distressed county of Appalachian Tennessee.

PURPOSE: The rise in rural hospital closures has sparked concern about the potential loss of essential health care services for rural communities. It is crucial to incorporate the perspectives of community residents, which have been largely missing from the literature, when devising strategies to improve health care for this population. The purpose of this study was to describe community residents' perceptions of access to care following a rural hospital closure in an economically distressed Appalachian county of Tennessee. METHODS: This study used a qualitative descriptive approach to illustrate how community residents perceive accessing care post hospital closure. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 community residents via telephone in May through August of 2020. Interviews were analyzed using conventional content analysis. FINDINGS: Five themes were identified based on Penchansky and Thomas' framework of health care: accessibility, availability, affordability, accommodation, and acceptability. Accessibility was identified as the most common concern among participants. Specifically, participants perceived longer travel times to receive care, reduced availability of emergency and specialty care, increased costs associated with ambulance services, and extended wait times to see providers. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide a critical perspective to inform local leaders and policymakers on the impacts of a hospital closure in a rural community. As rural hospitals continue to close, it is crucial to develop multi-level, community-driven solutions to ensure access to care for rural communities.

Understanding the impacts of rural hospital closures: A scoping review.

PURPOSE: Rural hospitals are closing at unprecedented rates, with hundreds more at risk of closure in the coming 2 years. Multiple federal policies are being developed and implemented without a salient understanding of the emerging literature evaluating rural hospital closures and its impacts. We conducted a scoping review to understand the impacts of rural hospital closure to inform ongoing policy debates and research. METHODS: A comprehensive search strategy was devised by library faculty to collate publications using the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. Two coauthors then independently performed title and abstract screening, full text review, and study extraction. FINDINGS: We identified 5054 unique citations and assessed 236 full texts for possible inclusion in our narrative synthesis of the literature on the impacts of rural hospital closure. Twenty total original studies were included in our narrative synthesis. Key domains of adverse impacts related to rural hospital closure included emergency medical service transport, local economies, availability and utilization of emergency care and hospital services, availability of outpatient services, changes in quality of care, and workforce and community members. However, significant heterogeneity existed within these findings. CONCLUSIONS: Given the significant heterogeneity within our findings across multiple domains of impact, we advocate for a tailored approach to mitigating the impacts of rural hospital closures for policymakers. We also discuss crucial knowledge gaps in the evidence base-especially with respect to quality measures beyond mortality. The synthesis of these findings will permit policymakers and researchers to understand, and mitigate, the harms of rural hospital closure.

The impact of rural general hospital closures on communities-A systematic review of the literature.

PURPOSE: To compile the literature on the effects of rural hospital closures on the community and summarize the evidence, specifically the health and economic impacts, and identify gaps for future research. METHODS: A systematic review of the relevant peer-reviewed literature, published from January 2005 through December 2021, included in the EMBASE, CINAHL, PubMed, EconLit, and Business Source Complete databases, as well as "gray" literature published during the same time period. A total of 21 articles were identified for inclusion. FINDINGS: Over 90% of the included studies were published in the last 8 years, with nearly three-fourths published in the last 4 years. The most common outcomes studied were economic outcomes and employment (76%), emergent, and non-emergent transportation, which includes transport miles and travel time (42.8%), access to and supply of health care providers (38%), and quality of patient outcomes (19%). Eighty-nine percent of the studies that examined economic impacts found unfavorable results, including decreased income, population, and community economic growth, and increased poverty. Between 11 and 15.7 additional minutes were required to transport patients to the nearest emergency facility after closures. A lack of consistency in measures and definition of rurality challenges comparability across studies. CONCLUSIONS: The comprehensive impact of rural hospital closures on communities has not been well studied. Research shows predominantly negative economic outcomes as well as increased time and distance required to access health care services. Additional research and consistency in the outcome measures and definition of rurality is needed to characterize the downstream impact of rural hospital closures.

Patient Outcomes After Long-Term Acute Care Hospital Closures.

Importance: Long-term acute care hospitals (LTCHs) are common sites of postacute care for patients recovering from severe respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation (MV). However, federal payment reform led to the closure of many LTCHs in the US, and it is unclear how closure of LTCHs may have affected upstream care patterns at short-stay hospitals and overall patient outcomes. Objective: To estimate the association between LTCH closures and short-stay hospital care patterns and patient outcomes. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective, national, matched cohort study used difference-in-differences analysis to compare outcomes at short-stay hospitals reliant on LTCHs that closed during 2012 to 2018 with outcomes at control hospitals. Data were obtained from the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review File, 2011 to 2019. Participants included Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 66 years and older receiving MV for at least 96 hours in an intensive care unit (ie, patients at-risk for prolonged MV) and the subgroup also receiving a tracheostomy (ie, receiving prolonged MV). Data were analyzed from October 2022 to June 2023. Exposure: Admission to closure-affected hospitals, defined as those discharging at least 60% of patients receiving a tracheostomy to LTCHs that subsequently closed, vs control hospitals. Main Outcomes and Measures: Upstream hospital care pattern outcomes were short-stay hospital do-not-resuscitate orders, palliative care delivery, tracheostomy placement, and discharge disposition. Patient outcomes included hospital length of stay, days alive and institution free within 90 days, spending per days alive within 90 days, and 90-day mortality. Results: Between 2011 and 2019, 99 454 patients receiving MV for at least 96 hours at 1261 hospitals were discharged to 459 LTCHs; 84 LTCHs closed. Difference-in-differences analysis included 8404 patients (mean age, 76.2 [7.2] years; 4419 [52.6%] men) admitted to 45 closure-affected hospitals and 45 matched-control hospitals. LTCH closure was associated with decreased LTCH transfer rates (difference, -5.1 [95% CI -8.2 to -2.0] percentage points) and decreased spending-per-days-alive (difference, -$8701.58 [95% CI, -$13 323.56 to -$4079.60]). In the subgroup of patients receiving a tracheostomy, there was additionally an increase in do-not-resuscitate rates (difference, 10.3 [95% CI, 4.2 to 16.3] percentage points) and transfer to skilled nursing facilities (difference, 10.0 [95% CI, 4.2 to 15.8] percentage points). There was no significant association of closure with 90-day mortality. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study, LTCH closure was associated with changes in discharge patterns in patients receiving mechanical ventilation for at least 96 hours and advanced directive decisions in the subgroup receiving a tracheostomy, without change in mortality. Further studies are needed to understand how LTCH availability may be associated with other important outcomes, including functional outcomes and patient and family satisfaction.

Hospital Survival In Rural Markets: Closures, Mergers, And Profitability.

Financial distress among rural hospitals in the US has increased in recent years. Using national hospital data, we investigated how the decline in profitability has affected hospital survival, either independently or with a merger. The answer has direct implications for access to care and competition in rural markets. We assessed the rate of hospital closures and mergers in predominantly rural markets during the period 2010-18, focusing on hospitals that were unprofitable at baseline. A minority of unprofitable hospitals (7 percent) closed. A larger share (17 percent) merged, most commonly with organizations from outside of their local geographic market. Most unprofitable hospitals (77 percent) continued to operate through 2018 without closure or merger. About half of these hospitals returned to profitability. At the market level, 22 percent of markets served by unprofitable hospitals lost a competitor to closure or within-market merger. Out-of-market mergers affected 33 percent of markets with an unprofitable hospital. Overall, our results suggest that rural markets are experiencing meaningful rates of hospital closures and mergers, yet many hospitals have survived despite poor financial performance. Policies targeting access to care will continue to be important. Similar attention will be needed to address the competitive effects of hospital closures and mergers on prices and quality.

The Emergence of Rural Emergency Hospitals: Safely Implementing New Models of Care.

This Viewpoint discusses the potential benefits of the rural emergency hospital model, which exclusively provides outpatient and emergency services, in rural communities faced with possible hospital closures, as well as safeguards to monitor and minimize unintended consequences.

Community sociodemographics and rural hospital survival.

PURPOSE: To determine whether community sociodemographic factors are associated with the survival or closure of rural hospitals at risk of financial distress between 2010 and 2019. METHODS: We use a national sample of 985 rural hospitals at risk of financial distress to analyze the relationship between community sociodemographic characteristics and hospital survival or closure. We control for financial distress using the Financial Distress Index developed by the Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Community characteristics are retrieved from the Census and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We first use Wilcoxon rank-sum tests to demonstrate annual sociodemographic differences between rural communities with financially distressed hospitals that closed between 2010 and 2019, and those that remained open. Multilevel Weibull proportional hazards regressions then uncover which sociodemographic factors are significantly associated with survival. FINDINGS: Our initial results confirm that closures of rural hospitals at risk of financial distress disproportionately affect communities with certain sociodemographic characteristics. However, most of these characteristics are not associated with higher rates of closure in the multivariate survival analysis. The final results suggest that financially distressed hospitals are more likely to experience closure if their communities have higher rates of unemployment (Hazard Ratio = 1.36, P < .05) or uninsured residents under 65 (Hazard Ratio = 1.13, P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Among financially distressed rural hospitals, specific community-level sociodemographic characteristics (unemployment and uninsurance rates) are positively associated with the likelihood of closure. Social policies addressing these issues should emphasize their broader relationship with the local health sector.

Changes in access to community health services among rural areas affected and unaffected by hospital closures between 2006 and 2018: A comparative interrupted time series study.

PURPOSE: Recent studies suggest that Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) may be expanding their provision of primary care in rural communities that experience a hospital loss. Whether these trends are different from rural areas not being affected by rural hospital closures is unknown. METHODS: Data included Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Provider of Services files, the Cecil G. Sheps hospital closure database, and American Community Survey estimates. Changes in straight-line distances to the nearest FQHC and rural health clinic (RHC) were compared between areas affected and unaffected by a rural hospital closure in a matched case control study design using an interrupted time series model. FINDINGS: There was no instantaneous percentage point increase in FQHC (2.41, 95% CI -0.79 to 5.60, P .140) or RHC (3.27, 95% CI -1.12 to 7.67, P .144) access following hospital closures compared to changes in access occurring in other rural areas. On average, rural ZIP codes affected by hospital closures exhibited a 0.84 percentage point increase in FQHC access over time (95% CI 0.40-1.28, P .000), but similar trends were also found within unaffected ZIP codes classified as small rural areas. CONCLUSIONS: Rural areas impacted by hospital closures did not experience an increase in proximity to FQHCs or RHCs relative to changes in access occurring in other rural areas. Over time, most rural areas are seeing an increase in access to FQHCs and RHCs. Policies are needed to incentivize primary care providers to target geographic areas experiencing a hospital closure.

Impact of rural hospital closures on hospitalizations and associated outcomes for ambulatory and emergency care sensitive conditions.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of rural hospital closures on age-adjusted hospitalization rates for ambulatory care sensitive condition (ACSC) and emergency care sensitive condition (ECSC) and associated outcomes, such as length of stay and in-hospital mortality in hospital service areas (HSAs) that utilized the closed hospital. METHODS: We used the State Inpatient Data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project for 9 states from 2010 to 2017 and classified admissions as ACSC or ECSC. We compared age-adjusted admission rates and length of stay (LOS) for ACSC and ECSC rates and age adjusted in-hospital mortality rate for ECSC among rural ZIP codes in HSAs with a closure to rural ZIP codes in HSAs without closures. We used propensity score-weighted regression analysis and event study design. FINDINGS: Findings suggest that ACSC admission rates started to increase right before the closure. However, this increase levels off 2 years after closure. LOS for ACSC significantly decreased almost a year after closure. ECSC admissions showed a significant decrease for a few quarters 1 year before the closure. CONCLUSIONS: Rural hospital closures were associated with increase in ACSC admissions right before closure and for nearly 2 years post closure as well as decrease in ECSC admissions before closure. As rural hospitals continue to close, efforts to ensure communities affected by these closures maintain access to primary health care may help eliminate increases in costly preventable hospital admissions for ACSC while ensuring access for emergency care services.

Availability of hospital-based cancer services before and after rural hospital closure, 2008-2017.

INTRODUCTION: Rural populations have less access to cancer care services and experience higher cancer mortality rates than their urban counterparts, which may be exacerbated by hospital closures. Our objective was to examine the impact of hospital closures on access to cancer-relevant hospital services across hospital service areas (HSAs). METHODS: We used American Hospital Association survey data from 2008 to 2017 to examine the change in access to cancer-related screening and treatment services across rural HSAs that sustained hospitals over time, experienced any closures, or had all hospitals close. We performed a longitudinal analysis to assess the association between hospital closure occurrence and maintenance or loss of cancer-related service lines accounting for hospital and HSA-level characteristics. Maps were also developed to display changes in the availability of services across HSAs. RESULTS: Of the 2,014 rural HSAs, 3.8% experienced at least 1 hospital closure during the study period, most occurring in the South. Among HSAs that experienced hospital closure, the loss of surgery services lines was most common, while hospital closures did not affect the availability of overall oncology and radiation services. Screening services either were stable (mammography) or increased (endoscopy) in areas with no closures. DISCUSSION: Rural areas persistently experience less access to cancer treatment services, which has been exacerbated by hospital closures. Lack of Medicaid expansion in many Southern states and other policy impacts on hospital financial viability may play a role in this. Future research should explore the impact of closures on cancer treatment receipt and outcomes.

Worth the trip? The effect of hospital clinic closures for patients undergoing scheduled surgery.

Recent decades' hospital closures and consolidations have been rationalized with reference to arguments of efficiency and quality returns to scale and scope. However, closures are met with public outcry from patients living in areas affected by such closures if accompanying increases in travel time are not offset by a higher quality of care. It is broadly established that increases in patients' travel time to acute care lower the probability of survival, but in non-acute and scheduled care we lack knowledge about the quality of care that patients living in closure-affected areas receive. In the non-acute setting of scheduled breast cancer surgery, this study examines how hospital clinic closures affect the quality of care that closure-affected patients receive. The effects are identified using closures of breast cancer clinics in Denmark from 2000 to 2011, during which time the number of clinics was more than halved. Using event study designs on population-wide Danish register data from 1996 to 2014, this study examine changes in surgical outcomes for 9790 patients living in municipalities where the nearest clinic has been closed. The results show that closures have reduced the number of hospitalization days and shifted surgical procedures to state-of-the-art breast-conserving techniques without generating adverse health effects and without causing crowding in non-closing clinics. An examination of the mechanisms suggests that added volume returns at non-closing clinics were of less importance than simply reallocating patients to higher-quality clinics. Closures of clinics performing scheduled surgery may be an effective policy instrument if the goal is to reduce variation in the delivery of hospital care. Increased access to state-of-the-art care may counterbalance patients' concerns of losing their local clinic. However, if the clinics to be closed are small compared to non-closing clinics then there is no potential for added economies of scale or scope in non-closing clinics.

The bystander effect: Impact of rural hospital closures on the operations and financial well-being of surrounding healthcare institutions.

INTRODUCTION: There is presently a rural hospital shortage in the United States with 180 closures since 2005 and hundreds of institutions in financial peril. Although the hospital closure phenomenon is well-established, less is known about the spillover impact on the operations and financial wellbeing of surrounding hospitals. This preliminary study quantified how discrete rural hospital closures impact institutions in their regional proximity, finding a significant increase in inpatient admissions and emergency department visits for these "bystander hospitals". METHODS: Using a repository of rural hospital closures collected by the UNC Sheps Center for Health Services Research, we identified closures over the past 15 years. Criteria for inclusion were hospitals that had been fully closed between 2005-2016 and with >25-bed capacity. We then designated surrounding hospitals within a 30-mile radius of each closed hospital as "bystander hospitals." We examined the average rate-of-change for inpatient admissions and emergency department visits in surrounding hospitals both two years before and after relevant hospital closures. RESULTS: We identified 53 hospital closures and 93 bystander hospitals meeting our criteria during the study period. With respect to geographic distribution, 66% of closures were in the Southern US, including 21% in Appalachia. Average emergency department visits increased by 3.59% two years prior to a hospital's closure; however, at two years post-closure the average rate of increase rose to 10.22% (F (4,47) = 2.77, p = 0.0375). Average bystander hospital admissions fell by 5.73% in the two years preceding the hospital closure but increased 1.17% in the two years after (F (4,46) = 3.05, p = 0.0259). CONCLUSION: These findings predict a daunting future for rural healthcare. While previous literature has described the acute effects hospital closures have on communities, this study suggests a significant spillover effect on hospitals within the geographic region and a cyclical process at play in the rural healthcare sector. In the absence of significant public health assistance in regions affected by closures, poor health outcomes, including "diseases of despair," are likely to continue proliferating, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable. In the COVID-19 era, it will be especially necessary to focus on hospital closures given increased risk of maintaining solvency due to delayed and deferred care atop already tight margins.