Small rural emergency departments are not simply cut-down large urban emergency departments

Abstract

It is important to understand how small rural emergency departments work. They are a significant fraction of a state’s medical system. Although they each see only a few thousand patients a year, as a group they are likely to treat more emergency patients than the largest city hospital. It is a myth that they only deal with minor ailments. Many isolated rural hospitals receive ambu lances because ambulance services are reluctant to send their only local ambulance out of area. In addition, many patients with serious illness come directly to the emergency department without calling an ambulance.