The Impact of Rural Hospital Closures and Health Service Restructuring on Provincial- and Community-Level Patterns of Hospital Admissions in New Brunswick.

ABSTRACT: In the early 2000s, the Province of New Brunswick, Canada, undertook health system restructuring, including closing some rural hospitals. We examined whether changes in geographic access to hospitals and primary care were associated with changes in patterns of hospital use. We described three measures of hospital use for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) among adults 75 years and younger annually during the period 2004-2013 overall, and at the community scale. We described spatial and temporal patterns in: age-standardized hospitalization rates, age-standardized incidence of hospital admissions, and rates of admissions via ambulance. Overall, rates and incidence of hospitalizations for ACSCs declined while admissions via ambulance remained largely unchanged. We observed consider

SUBMITTER: Crouse DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9223870 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature