Thread by @MSNBC

More than 100 rural hospitals have closed in the US since 2010 and another 430 are at risk of closing, which a new study says could have life-or-death implications for rural communities.

Reporting by @PhilMcCausland: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/r… (1/5)

@PhilMcCausland Researchers examined 92 rural hospital closings in California from 1995 to 2011. They found that while the closings of urban hospitals had no impact on their surrounding communities, rural closings caused their populations to see mortality rates rise 5.9%. (2/5)

@PhilMcCausland “Rural closings increase travel times for patients, and lead to outmigration of health care professionals post-closure, severely dismembering patient access to care and exacerbating social disparities in health outcomes,” researchers write in their study. (3/5)

@PhilMcCausland The distance that ambulances have to travel to patients after a hospitals closes, as well as the limited number of ambulances, means that residents there may have to wait for care, says Dr. Nancy Dickey, president of the Rural and Community Health Institute at Texas A&M. (4/5)

@PhilMcCausland "There’s a golden hour of getting care in that first hour of trauma," says Dr. Dickey. "If you don't get care in that time, it can have a negative impact on morbidity as well as mortality." (5/5) #NBCNewsThreads