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Closure of Rural Hospital Obstetric Units in Missouri *
Author(s) -
Lawhorne Larry,
Zweig Steven
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
the journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.439
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1748-0361
pISSN - 0890-765X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-0361.1989.tb00994.x
Subject(s) - medicine , family medicine , birth certificate , population , environmental health
We studied 65 rural hospitals in Missouri that provided obstetric services in 1986. The hospitals were divided into three groups on the basis of their physician obstetric staff: family or general practitioners only (38 hospitals), family practitioners and obstetricians (22 hospitals), and obstetricians only (five hospitals). From birth certificate data, we detected a decline in the mean number of births in all groups of rural hospitals comparing 1980‐1983 with 1984–1987. Births in family practice only hospitals declined most over the past four years (35%), whereas there was only a 4 percent decline in the number of births to rural Missouri women. In 1987, 10 of the 38 family practice only hospital obstetric units closed due to loss of physician services, whereas none of the other hospitals stopped providing obstetric care (X 2 = 8.40, p < 0.005). These findings suggest that rural hospitals with family and general practitioners exclusively on their obstetric staffs are at significant risk of closing their obstetric units.