Survey says Rural Hospitals Are Better

by Dawn Johnson

Canada is not the only country in which small hospitals are being closed in favour of regionalized or centralized hospitals. Rural Australians are experiencing the same government policy.

Australians call it ‘delocalization’ and have fought it tooth and nail with no better results than Princeton. However, a study done in the United States may save rural Americans the same battle. Due to health care legislation brought in by the federal government in 2010 which expanded Medicare benefits to more Americans than ever before, the government decided there might be a need for health care reform. 

A company called iVantage Analytics did a nationwide study comparing small rural hospitals with urban hospitals. The recommendation after the study was to keep rural hospitals because they are better. The study was released to the public in April 2012 and is titled Rural Relevance Under Health Care Reform. It is on the net.

Rural hospitals in the study closely resemble the hospital Princeton had before the 21st century. The rural hospitals had surgical facilities for common surgical procedures and offered maternity care and acute care. Only complex cases requiring a specialist were referred to another hospital.

The study found rural hospitals are more efficient. Rural hospitals kept fewer people in the hospital, offering more outpatient care. Outpatients are those who are admitted for a treatment and then go home the same day. Higher outpatient statistics mean higher savings. At the same time, this did not mean patients were receiving inferior care.

The study checked to see how many patients came back within 30 days, and it was no worse than the city hospitals. Patients entering rural hospitals were seen by a physician in half the time it took a patient in a city hospital.

Patients in both urban and rural hospitals were surveyed to ask about their experience as a patient. Those who were treated in rural hospitals gave their hospital experience a much higher rating of satisfaction. 

The study estimated that keeping rural hospitals would save Medicare $7.2 billion per year. The authors of the study openly challenged the “misunderstanding that rural hospitals are more costly, inefficient and have lower quality and satisfaction”.