Rural Bypass of Critical Access Hospitals in Iowa: Do Visiting Surgical Specialists Make a Difference?

Rural bypass for elective surgical procedures is a challenge for critical access hospitals, yet there are opportunities for rural hospitals to improve local retention of surgical candidates through alternative approaches to developing surgery lines of business. In this study we examine the effect of visiting surgical specialists on the odds of rural bypass.Discharge data from the 2011 State Inpatient Databases and State Ambulatory Surgery...