Medical desert

Medical desert is a term used to describe regions where the population has inadequate access to healthcare.[1] The term can be applied whether the lack of healthcare is general or in a specific field, such as dental or pharmaceutical.[2] It is primarily used to describe rural areas, although it is sometimes applied to urban areas as well.[2] The term is inspired by the analogous concept of a food desert.[1]

In the United States
Main article: Medical deserts in the United States

An estimated 30 million Americans, many in rural regions of the country, live at least 60 minutes drive from a hospital with trauma care services.[3] Limited access to emergency room services, as well as medical specialists, leads to increases in mortality rates and long-term health problems, such as heart disease and diabetes.[4][5] Regions with higher rates of Medicaid and Medicare patients, as well patients who are uninsured are less likely to live within an hour's drive of a hospital emergency room.[3]

Since 1975, over 1,000 hospitals, many in rural regions, have closed their doors, unable to bear the cost of care of uninsured patients,[6] resulting in some patients in every state needing to drive at least an hour to a hospital emergency room, a problem that poses an even greater danger during the COVID-19 pandemic, when patients in respiratory distress urgently need oxygen[7] and can ill afford an hour-long ambulance ride to reach a hospital. In addition to the immediate financial problems facing rural healthcare providers, inequities in rural healthcare are further aggravated by the disproportionately low amount of newly graduated doctors that apply for positions in rural areas.

Although concentrated in rural regions, health care deserts also exist in urban and suburban areas, particularly in Black majority census tracts in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.[8] Medical literature addressing health disparities in urban centers has applied the term medical desert to areas that are more than a five-miles from the nearest acute care facility.[8] Racial demographic disparities in healthcare access are also present in rural areas, with Native Americans living in rural areas in particular receiving inadequate medical care.[9][10]

Pharmacy deserts have developed in some urban areas,[11][12] a situation which increased the challenge of distributing and administering vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.[13][14][15]

See also

References
  1. Chevillard, Guillaume; Lucas-Gabrielli, Véronique; Mousquès, Julien (2018). Dill, Lan (ed.). "Medical deserts in France: Current state of research and future trends". L'Espace Géographique. 47: 362–380. doi:10.3917/eg.474.0362 – via CAIRN.
  2. Garcia, Estevan (2018-09-01). "THE URBAN FOOD DESERT AS A MODEL FOR THE URBAN HEALTH CARE DESERT: FUNDAMENTAL CAUSES AND ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS". Dissertations and Theses.
  3. Carr, Brendan; Bowman, Ariel; Wolff, Catherine; Mullen, Michael T.; Holena, Daniel; Branas, Charles C.; Wiebe, Douglas (2017). "Disparities in Access to Trauma Care in the United States: A Population-Based Analysis". Injury. 48 (2): 332–338. doi:10.1016/j.injury.2017.01.008. ISSN 0020-1383. PMC 5292279. PMID 28069138.
  4. "Poor Access to a Trauma Center Linked to Higher Prehospital Death Rates in More Than Half of U.S. States". American College of Surgeons. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  5. "About Rural Health Care - NRHA". www.ruralhealthweb.org. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  6. "Hospital Closings Likely to Increase". Official web site of the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration. 2017-10-16. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  7. "Neighborhoods With 'Medical Deserts' Have Emergency Needs During COVID Pandemic". The Baltimore Times, Inc. Positive Stories. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  8. Tung, Elizabeth L.; Hampton, David A.; Kolak, Marynia; Rogers, Selwyn O.; Yang, Joyce P.; Peek, Monica E. (2019-03-01). "Race/Ethnicity and Geographic Access to Urban Trauma Care". JAMA Network Open. 2 (3): e190138. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.0138. PMC 6484639. PMID 30848804.
  9. "For Native Americans, Health Care Is A Long, Hard Road Away". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  10. "Why Care at Native American Hospitals Is Often Substandard". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2016-10-08. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  11. Olumhense, Ese; Husain, Nausheen (2018-01-22). "'Pharmacy deserts' a growing health concern in Chicago, experts, residents say". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  12. Kingson, Jennifer A. (2021-01-07). ""Pharmacy deserts" are becoming a bigger problem in low-income neighborhoods". Axios. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  13. Marsh, Tori (2021-01-14). "'Vaccine Deserts' Threaten to Prolong COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout - GoodRx". GoodRx. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  14. Adams, Biba (2020-12-25). "Pharmacy deserts expose racial and socioeconomic gap in vaccine access". TheGrio. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  15. Terry Ellis, Nicquel; Meyersohn, Nathaniel; Jimenez, Omar (2020-12-24). "Their communities are deserted by pharmacies. Advocates fear this will lead to inequitable vaccine access". CNN. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
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