Rural Hospital Closures Hit Older Adults Hard

Rural hospital closures can have devastating effects for older adults because they are bigger users of healthcare than younger ones, reports Next Avenue . The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill's Mark Holmes says driving long distances to seek care is a harder problem for older adults, while more costs for fuel and an early-morning procedure may mean traveling the day before, adding meal and hotel expenses to the bill. "Family may not be there to provide informal care or assistance, unless someone takes time off from work to be with them," Holmes notes. Meanwhile, the Kaiser Family Foundation says hospital closures make it more likely that older adults may not receive all the care they need, and may skip basic preventive care that raises the odds of an earlier death. About 50 percent of U.S. short-term acute care hospitals are in rural regions, with about 40 percent in the South. They supply a greater percentage of outpatient care than their urban counterparts, and are often a community's single source of comprehensive healthcare. More than half of all rural closures in 2010 through 2014 were in the South, impacting about 800,000 people, while another 700,000 rural residents lost access to inpatient care when the hospitals converted to emergency or outpatient only. Holmes predicts more rural communities will probably lose their hospitals owing to financial problems, difficulty recruiting qualified practitioners, and dwindling numbers of care recipients as younger people leave.