ArticleHealth services research2012
The effects of safety net hospital closures and conversions on patient travel distance to hospital services.
Article in Health services research, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- New Medical Schools, Access to Physicians, and Health Outcomes: Evidence From Japan.Health economics · 2026Article
- Changes in Oncology Care Provision Following Safety-Net Hospital Acquisition by Health Systems.Medical care research and review : MCRR · 2026Article
- Associations between rural hospital closures and acute and post-acute care access and outcomes.Health services research · 2025Article
- Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in California Ambulance Patient Offload Times.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- US Hospital Service Availability and New 340B Program Participation.JAMA health forum · 2024Article
- Structural Factors and Racial/Ethnic Inequities in Travel Times to Acute Care Hospitals in the Rural US South, 2007-2018.The Milbank quarterly · 2023Article
- Patterns in Patient Encounters and Emergency Department Capacity in California, 2011-2021.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Sources of Clinician Burnout in Providing Care for Underserved Patients in a Safety-Net Healthcare System.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Article
- A Conceptual Framework for Optimizing the Equity of Hospital-Based Emergency Care: The Structure of Hospital Transfer Networks.The Milbank quarterly · 2023Article
- Disparities in Spatial Access to Emergency Surgical Services in the US.JAMA health forum · 2022Article
- Rural Medicare beneficiaries are increasingly likely to be admitted to urban hospitals.Health services research · 2022Article
- Effect of an Emergency Department Closure on Homeless Patients and Adjacent Hospitals.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2022Article
- Structural Racism, Place, and COVID-19: A Narrative Review Describing How We Prepare for an Endemic COVID-19 Future.Health equity · 2022Review
- Evaluating How Safety-Net Hospitals Are Identified: Systematic Review and Recommendations.Health equity · 2022Review
- Association Between State Medicaid Expansion and Emergency Access to Acute Care Hospitals in the United States.JAMA network open · 2020Article
- How Safe Are Safety-Net Hospitals? Opportunities to Improve Outcomes for Vulnerable Patients Undergoing Hepatopancreaticobiliary Surgery.Journal of gastrointestinal surgery : official journal of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract · 2020Article
- Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery: the Role of Clinical Resources and Variation in Performance of Hospitals Located in "Distressed" Communities.Journal of gastrointestinal surgery : official journal of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract · 2020Article
- Minimum Travel Distance Among Publicly Insured Infants with Severe Congenital Heart Disease: Potential Impact of In-state Restrictions.Pediatric cardiology · 2019Article
- Emergency Department Closures And Openings: Spillover Effects On Patient Outcomes In Bystander Hospitals.Health affairs (Project Hope) · 2019Article
- Comparison of 3 Safety-Net Hospital Definitions and Association With Hospital Characteristics.JAMA network open · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the effects of safety net hospital (SNH) closure and for-profit conversion on uninsured, Medicaid, and racial/ethnic minorities. DATA SOURCES/EXTRACTION
methodsHospital discharge data for selected states merged with other sources. STUDY
designWe examined travel distance for patients treated in urban hospitals for five diagnosis categories: ambulatory care sensitive conditions, referral sensitive conditions, marker conditions, births, and mental health and substance abuse. We assess how travel was affected for patients after SNH events. Our multivariate models controlled for patient, hospital, health system, and neighborhood characteristics. PRINCIPAL
findingsOur results suggested that certain groups of uninsured and Medicaid patients experienced greater disruption in patterns of care, especially Hispanic uninsured and Medicaid women hospitalized for births. In addition, relative to privately insured individuals in SNH event communities, greater travel for mental health and substance abuse care was present for the uninsured.
conclusionsClosure or for-profit conversions of SNHs appear to have detrimental access effects on particular subgroups of disadvantaged populations, although our results are somewhat inconclusive due to potential power issues. Policy makers may need to pay special attention to these patient subgroups and also to easing transportation barriers when dealing with disruptions resulting from reductions in SNH resources.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.