432 Rural Hospitals at Risk of Closure; Breakdown By State

From Becker’s Financial Management

There are 432 rural hospitals vulnerable to closure, according to a Feb. 11 report from Chartis, a healthcare advisory services firm.

Chartis analyzed 15 vulnerability indicators and found that 10 were statistically significant in predicting hospital closures, including: Medicaid expansion status, average length of stay, occupancy, percentage change in net patient revenue and years of negative operating margin.

Of the 48 states with rural hospitals, 38 have at least one at risk of closure, according to the report. The states with the highest number of vulnerable hospitals are:

Texas: 47
Kansas: 46
Mississippi: 28
Oklahoma: 23
Georgia: 22

Arkansas (50%) has the highest percentage of rural hospitals at risk of closure, followed by Mississippi (47%) and Kansas (47%).

The percentage of rural hospitals at risk of closure by state is as follows:

More than 41% of hospitals