The Rural & Underserved Health Research Center's policy brief Do Hospital Closures Affect Patient Time in an Ambulance? notes that although hospital closures in urban and suburban areas do not result in longer transport times for patients needing emergency care, rural patients do experience longer ambulance transportation time if a hospital in their zip code stopped providing general in-patient care during the previous year. According to this report, rural patients over 64 years of age are likely to experience the greatest increase in time spent in an ambulance following a 911 call.