News and briefs: Patients skip over rural hospitals

Patients in Tennessee are driving past their local, rural hospital to get care at larger, urban hospitals, according to research conducted by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee of its members. An article from amednews.com states the health insurer reviewed over 47,000 of its inpatient hospital stays and found that 70% were not at the hospital closest to where the patient lived. The average distance patients travelled was 22 miles.

Rural hospitals do not offer as many services as larger facilities, so oftentimes patients have to travel beyond their local hospital to receive care. However, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee reported that of the 70% of patients who travelled to facilities farther away, 44% of the cases involved services that were offered at the closest hospital. Steven Coulter, MD, lead study author, says in the article that although the report focused on patients of one health insurer in one state, the findings can be applied to other states with large rural populations.