What changed so that hospitals are closing in the first place?
this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
28 points (100.0% liked)
Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related
2320 readers
403 users here now
Health: physical and mental, individual and public.
Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.
See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.
Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.
Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.
Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.
Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Rural hospitals aren't as profitable, so privately held hospitals have been closing so the company can invest money where they make more money per dollar spent.
That's usually the answer, but it also begs the question why aren't they as profitable as they used to be?
Some might be as profitable/unpredictable as they used to be, but urban/suburban areas are still much more profitable areas for hospitals to operate.
The reality of rural areas is that by their nature there just aren't as many people there
Yeah i came up with a few possible explanations:
- Corporate strategic decision to cut less profitable hospitals.
- Reduced population from people moving to the cities.
- Changes in billing or insurance that reduce profitability.
Or some combination of these.