TYPES OF
HOSPITALS In the mid-1990s there were some 6,400 hospitals in the United States. Most of these were general medical- and surgical-care facilities. About half had fewer than 100 beds. Academic teaching hospitalsÑwhich are usually larger institutions, often attached to medical schools, with internship and residency programsÑaccounted for about 14 percent of all hospitals.
Hospitals operate under one of three types of ownership: they are voluntary, conducted as nonprofit
public enterprises under private management; government, supported by taxes and sponsored by federal, state or county, or municipal and community agencies; or proprietary, profit-making
institutions financed by investors. The federal government operates hospitals through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and the armed services, as well as administering Public
Health Service (see public health) and Indian Health Service facilities, prison hospitals, and special institutions run by the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration. Every state operates one or more hospitals providing care of the mentally ill, the retarded, or tuberculosis patients.
Nonprofit hospitals may be run by religious groups or associations of citizens. Profit-making hospitals may be owned by individuals, by groupsÑoften of physiciansÑor by investor-owned corporations and
Hospital chains.
Hospitals may also be classified by the kinds of services they offer. General hospitals are equipped to treat a variety of common diseases and injuries. Special hospitals are established to treat specific diseases or special groups of patients: psychiatric, maternity, orthopedic, juvenile, and so forth. Short-term hospitals are defined by the American Hospital Association, the industry's central organization, as those with over half of all
patients admitted for less than 30 days.
All hospitals must be licensed by the states where they are located and must meet state-set standards of cleanliness and safety. A hospital may seek
accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH), the industry's official accrediting body. To receive accreditation, it must comply with JCAH standards and pass inspection and investigation in a JCAH survey. Other accrediting organizations evaluate the hospital's clinical laboratories and blood banks.
More abstracts about the TYPES OF HOSPITALS