Researchers say take rural patients to urban doctors for better outcomes

Better access to health care in rural Pennsylvania might not be a matter of sending more doctors outside cities and suburbs.

Instead, doctors and patients alike may benefit from going to where health care already exists, a new report suggests.

Research from the University of Chicago argued that investing in urban health care centers and providing transportation from rural areas to those places could help patients. In cities and suburbs, doctors can specialize to offer higher-quality care and gain experience they couldn’t get in rural areas.

“Incentives for doctors to move to rural areas, such as student loan forgiveness programs, are not as effective as investments in cities or travel subsidies because of the quality of care,” a press release from Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy noted.