Urban hospital closures begin to increase, with the highest impact on impoverished Black communities.
Date: 1987
Between 1987 and 2007, 40 public hospitals will close and 156 will shift from public to private ownership in urban centers in the U.S.
The hospitals that close are more likely to be public, with high percentages of Black patients and patients using Medicaid or Medicare. Additionally, the majority of closures occur in areas with significant residential segregation–meaning that separate hospitals exist in white-majority communities and in Black-majority communities.