Where Americans live far from the emergency room

Even though there are about 5,250 acute care and critical access hospitals in the U.S. that offers the kind of inpatient medical care needed to treat patients who have the coronavirus, in large parts of the country, it is hard to reach one. About 8.6 million people live in these places.As the coronavirus outbreak spreads into rural parts of the U.S., more people who live far from a hospital are increasingly likely to need one. That poses challenges for communities where hospitals are scarce and