Source: Clarissa Donnelly-DeRoven, NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH NEWS, 3/30/22


In the past decade, rural hospitals that shuttered tended to be in rural counties with lower incomes, higher levels of unemployment, and higher proportions of Black and Latino residents. That finding comes from a recent study conducted by researchers at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill. The 141 rural hospitals that closed nationwide between 2010 and 2020 were also often located in counties adjacent to metropolitan areas. Federal hospital finance data show that the rural hospitals in North Carolina that had the weakest financial outlook in 2019 ...

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