ArticleThe Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association2024
Understanding the impacts of rural hospital closures: A scoping review.
Article in The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Predictors of rural hospital closures in the United States: a systematic review and call for AI-driven early warning systems.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring implementation and sustainability of a community paramedicine model to reduce hospitalizations: a pragmatic randomized trial.BMC health services research · 2026Trial
- Prevalence and Characteristics of Potentially Avoidable Interhospital Transfers.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Invited Commentary: Capturing the Patient Perspective: The Missing Voice in the World of Hospital Expansion.Journal of the American College of Surgeons · 2026Article
- Rural Residence and Postsurgical Outcomes Among Medicare Beneficiaries.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Rural-urban comparisons of area-based socioeconomic disadvantage and vulnerability indices.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- Why are rural hospitals closing in the U.S.? Predictors identified using explainable machine learning.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Nonmedical Factors That Influence Diabetes Complications and Multilevel Strategies to Reduce Disparities and Improve Outcomes in the U.S.Diabetes care · 2026Article
- Rural Health Services Disruption: An Evaluation of Nursing's Professional 'Positionality'.Nursing philosophy : an international journal for healthcare professionals · 2026Article
- Payer mix shifts and profitability at critical access hospitals, 2011 to 2023.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- Neighborhood deprivation is associated with longer hospital stay for common pediatric surgical procedures independent of complication rates.American journal of surgery · 2026Article
- Cancer Burden in Persistent Poverty Areas across the Cancer Continuum: A Scoping Review to Identify Gaps and Opportunities for Future Research.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2026Article
- Hospitals alike, hospitals different: spatial clustering of inequality around Boston's hospitals.Frontiers in sociology · 2026Article
- Changes in Access to High Pediatric Readiness Emergency Care in the United States from 2013 to 2021.The Journal of pediatrics · 2026Article
- County-level socioeconomic status, rurality, and second primary cancer risk among breast cancer survivors in the United States.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2025Article
- Factors Associated with Mental and Behavioral Health Programming in U.S. Rural, Urban and Suburban Congregations.Journal of religion and health · 2025Article
- The Impact of Rural Hospital Closures and Mergers on Health System Ecologies: A Scoping Review.Medical care research and review : MCRR · 2025Article
- Recruitment and Retention of Rural Health Professionals in Minnesota.Health services research · 2025Article
- Changes in surgical quality and access after rural hospital closures.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- Service Changes, Utilization, and Financial Performance After Critical Access Hospitals Join Hospital Systems.Cureus · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeRural hospitals are closing at unprecedented rates, with hundreds more at risk of closure in the coming 2 years. Multiple federal policies are being developed and implemented without a salient understanding of the emerging literature evaluating rural hospital closures and its impacts. We conducted a scoping review to understand the impacts of rural hospital closure to inform ongoing policy debates and research.
methodsA comprehensive search strategy was devised by library faculty to collate publications using the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. Two coauthors then independently performed title and abstract screening, full text review, and study extraction.
findingsWe identified 5054 unique citations and assessed 236 full texts for possible inclusion in our narrative synthesis of the literature on the impacts of rural hospital closure. Twenty total original studies were included in our narrative synthesis. Key domains of adverse impacts related to rural hospital closure included emergency medical service transport, local economies, availability and utilization of emergency care and hospital services, availability of outpatient services, changes in quality of care, and workforce and community members. However, significant heterogeneity existed within these findings.
conclusionsGiven the significant heterogeneity within our findings across multiple domains of impact, we advocate for a tailored approach to mitigating the impacts of rural hospital closures for policymakers. We also discuss crucial knowledge gaps in the evidence base-especially with respect to quality measures beyond mortality. The synthesis of these findings will permit policymakers and researchers to understand, and mitigate, the harms of rural hospital closure.
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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.