Meade J M
Public Health Rep. 1976 Jan-Feb;91(1):62-6.
Recent research in southwest Idaho and southeast Oregon indicates that hospital service areas in this rural locality have not changed over time. The 12-county study area includes approximately 42,000 square miles inhabited by only 265,491 people. The focal point of hospital care in this region is Boise, Idaho, with adjacent smaller centers. Data used in the paper came from two sources-a patient-origin study completed in 1968 and a health interview survey completed in 1973. In both studies information was collected on patients' places of residence and where they went to receive hospital care. Because of the 6-year timespan between the studies, it was suspected that there may have been changes in the hospitals' service areas. An examination of some variables that customarily influence hospital service areas, such as number of physicians, number of hospital beds, and size of population, revealed that, despite sizable changes in all these variables, no appreciable changes were noted in the spatial patterns of the hospitals' service areas. This result was unexpected, but it may indicate to others engaged in planning for rural hospitals that updating patient origin studies in their areas may produce only marginal benefits.
爱达荷州西南部和俄勒冈州东南部的近期研究表明，该农村地区的医院服务区域并未随时间发生变化。这个涵盖12个县的研究区域面积约42000平方英里，仅有265491人居住。该地区医院护理的重点是爱达荷州的博伊西以及附近的一些较小医疗中心。论文中使用的数据来自两个来源——1968年完成的一项患者来源研究以及1973年完成的一项健康访谈调查。在这两项研究中，都收集了患者的居住地点以及他们前往何处接受医院护理的信息。由于两项研究之间相隔6年时间，人们怀疑医院的服务区域可能发生了变化。对一些通常会影响医院服务区域的变量进行考察，比如医生数量、医院病床数量和人口规模，结果发现，尽管所有这些变量都发生了显著变化，但医院服务区域的空间格局并未出现明显变化。这一结果出人意料，但它可能向其他从事农村医院规划的人表明，在他们所在地区更新患者来源研究可能只会带来微不足道的益处。
