Rural hospital closures and access to services.

Abstract

This article examines the implications resulting from the closure of 25 rural hospitals during 1990. The implications are evaluated by estimating travel distance and time to the nearest open hospitals. In addition, the types of services offered in the hospitals studied were measured to provide a view of potential change in access to services. The average travel distance and time to the nearest hospital after closure was 25.7 miles and 30.2 minutes, respectively. In most cases, the remaining hospitals offered a broader scope of services than did the hospitals that closed. A possible interpretation is that the hospital closures resulted in a tradeoff between breadth of services and rapid access for emergency conditions.