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IP81-12 WHERE DID ALL THE UROLOGISTS GO? EXAMINING TRANSFER PATTERNS AND VOLUMES AT A SAFETY NET ACADEMIC CENTER IN A RURAL STATE
Abstract   Peer reviewed

IP81-12 WHERE DID ALL THE UROLOGISTS GO? EXAMINING TRANSFER PATTERNS AND VOLUMES AT A SAFETY NET ACADEMIC CENTER IN A RURAL STATE

Reid Stubbee and Chad Tracy
The Journal of urology, Vol.215(5S), p.e1605
05/2026
DOI: 10.1097/01.JU.0001191768.90393.01.12

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: There is a well-documented shortage of urologists within rural areas in the United States. Urologic care is often limited in these areas requiring significant travel or transfer to centers with urologic coverage. In this study, we characterize the urologic transfer volume at an academic safety net hospital in a rural state. METHODS: A retrospective review was performed of a database of all transfers to our center from April 2018 to December 2024. All transfers in which urology was the primary service or was requested to be the primary service on transfer were identified. The name of the transferring facility and the number of transfers from each facility were abstracted and an internet search was performed to find the number of beds and address of each location. Descriptive statistics were performed and a heatmap was created of transfer trends and locations. RESULTS: A total of 1454 Urology transfers were identified. Transfers were accepted from 128 different hospital locations with a total inpatient bed capacity of 10564 beds across 5 different states and 94 counties (Figure 1). 47.3% of transfers were accepted from hospitals with bed capacity of less than 100 beds. 56% of transfers were from RUCC defined rural counties. Transfer volumes have notably increased since the pandemic with a pre-pandemic high of 181 in 2019, 142 in 2020, 187 in 2021, 226 in 2022, 290 in 2023 and 319 in 2024. CONCLUSIONS: The care footprint at a rural academic safety net hospital is wide with volumes increasing to at least one transfer per day in 2024. Transfer volumes appear to be increasing for unknown reasons following the COVID pandemic. Further investigation is required to understand the changing landscape of urologic care and understand the resource strain on both local communities and tertiary care centers from the shortage rural urologic care.

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