Giving Compass' Take:
- Heather Chapman reports that researchers found that recently bought-out rural hospitals were more likely to eliminate departments like maternal and neonatal care and limit access to mental health and diagnostic services.
- Chapman points out that mergers may save rural hospitals from closing altogether. What role can you play in supporting rural healthcare access?
- Read about the effects of closing rural hospitals.
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Rural hospitals that were acquired in mergers from 2009 to 2016 were more likely than their independent peers to shutter their maternal, neonatal and surgical services, and more likely to limit access to mental-health care, on-site diagnostic technologies, and non-emergency outpatient services, according to a newly published study in the journal Health Affairs.
In essence, the researchers found, a merger might save a hospital from closing, but make it less responsive to community needs. Merged hospitals were also less likely to be critical-access hospitals, and more likely to be privately owned, have more beds than average, and be located in the South.The study compared 172 rural hospitals that merged with larger systems between 2009 and 2016 and compared them with 549 hospitals that remained independent, using data from annual American Hospital Association surveys. In the year after hospitals were acquired, the average number that provided any maternal or neonatal services fell 6.7 percentage points more than independent hospitals. Two years afterward, that gap increased to 7.2 percentage points, but at three years post-merger and beyond, the gap virtually vanished.
Read the full article about rural hospitals acquired in mergers by Heather Chapman at The Rural Blog.