Community Social Vulnerability Index and Hospital Financial Performance

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between hospital financial performance and attributes of the community, mainly vulnerability, where the hospital serves.  We analyzed data of 3,664 U.S acute care hospitals for the year 2019 to examine how their financial performance, measured by operating margin and total margin, relates to the community's SVI.  We find a significant negative association between SVI and the financial performance of the hospital.