{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.035035408125232946, 'fraction_numerical': 0.025717480432351846, 'mean_word_length': 5.170114942528736, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Inpatient Stays in Rural Hospitals, 2007

Highlights ■ Rural hospitals were typically smaller than urban hospitals: half of rural hospitals had fewer than 50 beds while only one-fifth of urban hospitals were this small. ■ Hospitalizations in rural hospitals accounted for 12.8 percent of all hospitalizations and 9.6 percent of aggregate hospital costs in 2007. ■ On average, costs per stay in rural hospitals were less than those in urban hospitals (respective costs of $6,500 and $9,000). ■ Over half (54.7 percent) of all stays in rural hospitals were by patients residing in the lowest income communities; such patients accounted for one-quarter of all stays in urban hospitals. ■ Medicare accounted for the majority of aggregate costs in rural hospitals (55.7 percent); private health insurance accounted for 23.3 percent. In urban hospitals, Medicare and private health insurance accounted for 44.3 percent and 32.2 percent of aggregate costs, respectively. ■ Although most hospitalizations for rural residents took place in rural hospitals, 33 percent took place in urban hospitals. ■ Rural residents were treated more frequently in urban hospitals than in rural hospitals for some common conditions and procedures: back problems (63 percent), coronary artery disease (61 percent), complication of device, implant or graft (61 percent) and heart attack (56 percent), spinal fusion (78 percent), PCTA (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty) (74 percent), and cardiac pacemaker-related procedures (61 percent). Introduction Rural hospitals 1 are a critical source of health care for the 50 million Americans that reside in rural areas. These roughly 2,000 hospitals—about 40 percent of community hospitals in the U.S. 2 —face a host of challenges in providing quality care to the rural population. The rural population is, on average, older, less wealthy, more likely to be uninsured and have more health problems than the population at large. 3 In addition, because many rural hospitals are publicly owned, they can be especially vulnerable to cuts in state and local budgets which occur during times of economic stress. This Statistical Brief presents data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) on rural hospital stays in 2007. Utilization, resource, and patient characteristics of these hospitalizations are presented and compared to characteristics of urban hospital stays. The most common reasons for rural hospital stays, as well as the most common reasons for rural residents' stays in urban hospitals are provided. Similarly, the most common procedures performed during rural hospital stays, as well as during rural residents' stays in urban …