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Rural Hospitals: Federal Leadership and Targeted Programs Needed

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date June 12, 1990
Report No. HRD-90-67
Subject
Summary:

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO identified and reviewed programs targeted at assisting rural hospitals.

GAO found that: (1) multiple, interrelated factors contributed to the financial distress of at-risk rural hospitals; (2) at-risk rural hospitals had low patient volume, limited services, less technology, and higher costs per discharge; (3) there were many federal initiatives addressing at-risk rural hospitals, but, despite those efforts, many rural community hospitals were financially distressed; (4) problems remained because of shortcomings in program design, inadequate targeting, insufficient publicity, and ineffective monitoring; and (5) the lack of centralized information on the initiatives' outcome has prevented hospital and state officials from building on successes and avoiding failures.

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