Increase Seen in Percentage of Rural Patients Traveling More Than an Hour for Surgical Care
THURSDAY, Feb. 27, 2025 -- The percentage of patients traveling more than 60 minutes to obtain surgical care increased significantly between 2010 and 2020, according to a research letter published online Feb. 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Cody Lendon Mullens, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues quantified changes in travel times for rural patients undergoing surgical care. Road travel times were estimated for each admission using zip code centroids of the patient's home and the hospital where they underwent an operation; travel times were calculated using Google Maps. Data were included for 12,396,649 beneficiary admissions (2,678,251 rural) across 16 procedures.
The researchers found that for 12 of 16 procedures, there was an increase in the percentage of rural patients traveling more than 60 minutes for surgical care between 2010 and 2020; nonsignificant changes were seen for the remaining four procedures, which were all high-risk. Across all procedures, there was an increase in the percentage of rural beneficiaries traveling more than 60 minutes to obtain surgical care, from 36.8 to 44.1 percent (annual change, 0.70 percent). The percentage increased from 32.9 to 37.8 percent for low-risk procedures, with an annual change of 0.54 percent; for high-risk procedures, the percentage increased from 53.9 to 59.2 percent, with an annual change of 0.64 percent.
"These findings suggest a persistent and growing disparity in travel for rural patients undergoing surgical procedures," the authors write. "Contributing factors likely include ongoing rural hospital closures, workforce shortages, and rural patients bypassing local facilities to obtain care elsewhere."
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