Mergers of rural hospitals may improve outcomes, a new study finds

Rural hospitals that merge with larger health systems are linked to improved mortality outcomes for conditions such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, and pneumonia, when compared to facilities that remained independent, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.

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JAMA study details

For the study, researchers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and IBM Watson Health conducted a case-control analysis to identify changes in outcomes for patients discharged from rural hospitals before and after they merged with larger health systems. Those outcomes were compared with 266 hospitals that remained independent.

For the study, the researchers looked at the mortality...