View Policy Brief

10/2024

This brief provides a preliminary look at the types of communities with hospitals that converted to Rural Emergency Hospitals (REHs) in 2023. Researchers: 1) describe the socio-economic, race and ethnicity, and health status and access characteristics of the communities served by REHs, and 2) compare the characteristics of counties served by REHs to counties that experienced a recent rural hospital closure and to all other rural counties.

Key Findings:

• Sixteen of the 19 hospitals that converted to REH, open at the end of 2023, were in the South.
• Various hospital types converted to REHs in 2023: seven were Sole Community Hospitals, six were Critical Access Hospitals, four were Prospective Payment System hospitals, and two were Medicare Dependent Hospitals.
• Counties with REH conversions were relatively challenged, showing highest median rates of poverty (16.3% versus 13.4% in counties with a rural hospital closure, and 13.0% in all other rural counties), uninsured individuals (19.4% versus 13.0% in counties with a rural hospital closure, and 13.1% in all other rural counties), and people in poor or fair health (25.8% versus 21.7% in counties with a rural hospital closure, and 20.4% in all other rural counties).
• Counties with a REH conversion also faced health care access challenges, with fewer primary care and mental health providers and higher emergency department visit rates among Medicare beneficiaries.

North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center, Rapid Response to Requests for Rural Data Analysis

Young Kim, Julie Perry, Kristie Thompson, George Pink

Emergency medical services (EMS) and trauma, Health services, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Rural Emergency Hospitals (REHs)