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A brand new nationwide examine reveals that hospitals offering surgical care have closed at a considerably greater charge than new ones have opened, with closures disproportionately concentrated in communities with excessive ranges of poverty and social vulnerability. The examine highlights a rising disparity in entry to surgical care.
The analysis was introduced on the American Faculty of Surgeons (ACS) Medical Congress 2025, held in Chicago, October 4–7.
Researchers used American Hospital Affiliation information to trace hospitals performing no less than 100 operations per 12 months in 2010 and 2020. Between hospital openings and closures, they discovered a web lower of 298 surgical hospitals nationwide.
The examine authors then used the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to check the socioeconomic traits of areas with hospital closures versus these with steady or new hospitals.
“We were surprised by just how big of a number it was,” mentioned lead writer Jesse E. Passman, MD, MPH, MSHP, a normal surgical procedure resident on the Hospital of the College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“It is pretty startling to see such a drastic drop without adequate replacement volume, and it’s concerning for patient access to care.”
Key findings
Web lack of entry: The variety of geographic areas inside a 15-minute drive of a surgical hospital decreased by 6.2%, and the areas inside a 30-minute drive decreased by 3.7%.
Focused closures: Newly closed hospitals have been disproportionately situated in census tracts with decrease median incomes and better social vulnerability scores than areas with hospitals that opened or remained energetic. These areas have been greater than twice as more likely to be extremely socially weak.
Systemic pressure: Research authors warn that closures create a “huge influx of patients to surrounding hospitals, straining the emergency departments and surgical departments.”
“One of the hidden things that gets lost in the shuffle is patient records,” mentioned senior writer Heather Wachtel, MD, MTR, FACS, an affiliate professor of surgical procedure on the College of Pennsylvania.
“When a hospital closes, patients who had their care there may lose access to their health care records. Having that information is essential to their ongoing health care.”
The explanations for closure, whereas indirectly studied, are possible financial, associated to challenges in sustaining smaller hospitals and safety-net establishments that serve a excessive proportion of sufferers on authorities insurance coverage, authors be aware.
Impacts for sufferers and well being methods
The examine underscores a number of vital penalties of hospital closures:
Lack of medical historical past: Sufferers can completely lose entry to their medical data, resulting in pricey and harmful duplicative testing, re-establishment of medical historical past, and an absence of essential well being info for brand new suppliers.
Pressure on surrounding methods: Remaining hospitals should take up a sudden inflow of latest sufferers with out established histories, stretching assets skinny.
Sufferers could forgo care: The elevated burden of journey and discovering new suppliers could cause some sufferers to delay or fully keep away from looking for mandatory medical or surgical care, permitting circumstances to worsen.
“For each one of these patients that actually shows up to our hospitals, I’m sure that there’s a number of patients that don’t,” Dr. Passman mentioned. “These conditions that could be handled and potentially cured surgically are now festering and becoming chronic problems.”
Extra info:
Passman JE, et al. The Differential Affect of Surgical Hospital Closures on Socially Deprived Populations, Scientific Discussion board, American Faculty of Surgeons (ACS) Medical Congress 2025.
Supplied by
American Faculty of Surgeons
Quotation:
Hospital closures disproportionately have an effect on socioeconomically deprived communities, examine finds (2025, October 3)
retrieved 4 October 2025
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