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Hospital Closures And Short-Run Change In Ambulance Call Times, Sookti Chaudhary, Alison F. Davis, Kenneth R. Troske, Suzanne Troske

Rural & Underserved Health Research Center Publications

We measure one aspect of how access to emergency care through ambulance services changes for patients when a hospital closes. We empirically estimate the time needed to transport a patient to an emergency department in an ambulance in the period immediately after the hospital closes. We find urban patients in zip codes where a hospital closes have a small change in transportation time, where rural patients average an estimated 15.7 additional minutes – a 46% increase compared to the year before the closure. This increase is primarily the result of an almost 100 percent increase in the time it takes …

Do Hospital Closures Affect Patient Time In An Ambulance?, Suzanne Troske, Alison Davis

Rural & Underserved Health Research Center Publications

When a hospital closes in a community, patients needing emergency care may spend more time in an ambulance to receive care in an emergency department (ED). We explore how hospital closures affect the time a patient travels from an incident location where 9-1-1 was called to the ED in an ambulance.

• Rural patients average an estimated 11 additional minutes in an ambulance the year after a hospital closure in their zip code, a 76% increase compared to before the closure.
• Urban and suburban patients have no change in transportation time in zip codes where a hospital closes.
• Patients over 64 …