The COVID-19 pandemic may accelerate the closures of rural hospitals that already began the year on the brink. With cases and hospitalization rates expected to continue growing through the winter months, hospitals that remain open in rural communities are under enormous financial pressure.
It’s a struggle particularly felt in the South. Of the 134 rural hospitals to close in the past decade, 50 have been in the Southern states, according to data from the Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Often, the closures have occurred in communities laden with vulnerable populations that are more susceptible to the novel coronavirus, said Alan Morgan, the chief executive officer for the National Rural Hospital Association.