Code Red: The Grim State of Urban Hospitals

Closures of inner-city hospitals disproportionately hurt minority patients and the poor. Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses United, a national nurses' union, states, "Urban hospital closures are more apt to happen in racially segregated communities and especially in African American neighborhoods. The effect on these communities is devastating, as research shows that nationally urban African Americans receive their primary and other care at a hospital compared to one in six for whites." Robert Bonar, a professor at the George Washington University, says such closures are a symptom of a larger, more complex problem in healthcare. He says technological advances in medicine have created increasingly cost-effective options for both patients and caregivers, most notably outpatient treatment for conditions that had once been inpatient-only. "In most cases the era of the free-standing hospital, unaffiliated with any other health care organization, is likely drawing to a close," concludes Bonar.