Medical desert is a term used to describe regions whose population has inadequate access to healthcare.
The term can be applied whether the lack of healthcare is general or in a specific field, such as dental or pharmaceutical.
It is primarily used to describe rural areas although it is sometimes applied to urban areas as well.
The term is inspired by the analogous concept of a
food desert.
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.
Limited access to emergency room services, as well as medical specialists, leads to increases in
mortality rate
Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of d ...
s and long-term health problems, such as
heart disease and
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...
. Medicare, Medicaid, and uninsured patients are less likely than others to live within an hour's drive of a hospital emergency room.
Since 1975, over 1,000 hospitals, many in rural regions, have closed their doors because they are unable to bear the cost of care of uninsured patients. That has required some patients in every state to drive at least an hour to a hospital emergency room. The problem poses an even greater danger during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, when patients in
respiratory distress
Shortness of breath (SOB), also medically known as dyspnea (in AmE) or dyspnoea (in BrE), is an uncomfortable feeling of not being able to breathe well enough. The American Thoracic Society defines it as "a subjective experience of breathing di ...
urgently need oxygen 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 number of newly-graduated doctors applying for positions in rural areas.
Although concentrated in rural regions, health care deserts also exist in urban and suburban areas, particularly in
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
-majority census tracts in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
Medical literature addressing health disparities in urban centers has applied the term medical desert to areas that are more than five miles from the nearest
acute care
Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery.Alberta Health ServicesAcute care.Acce ...
facility.
Racial demographic disparities in healthcare access are also present in rural areas, particularly with Native Americans living in rural areas receiving inadequate medical care.
Pharmacy deserts have developed in some urban areas, a situation that has increased the challenge of distributing and administering vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.
See also
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Banking desert
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Environmental racism
Environmental racism or ecological apartheid is a form of institutional racism leading to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionally placed in communities of colour. Internationally, it is also associated with ...
*
Fenceline community
A fenceline community or frontline community is a neighborhood that is immediately adjacent to a company, military base, industrial or service center and is directly affected by the noise, odors, chemical emissions, traffic, parking, or operations ...
*
Food desert
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Ghetto tax
A cost of poverty, also known as a ghetto tax, a cost of being poor, or the poor pay more, is the phenomenon of people with lower incomes, particularly those living in low-income areas, incurring higher expenses, paying more not only in terms of mo ...
*
Transit desert
A transit desert is an area with limited transportation supply. Developed from the concept of food deserts, various methods have been proposed to measure transit deserts. Transit deserts are generally characterized by poor public transportation o ...
*
Underfunded public school system
References
{{Reflist
Health care