What are the most common hospital types?
The 7,300 hospitals in HospitalView include the following nine different hospital types: Children’s hospitals provide care to patients under 18 years old.
Critical access hospitals are designated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to help reduce financial vulnerability of rural hospitals and improve access to healthcare. They have 25 or less inpatient beds and are located more than 35 miles from another hospital.
Department of Defense hospitals provide care for military service members (i.e., Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard), their dependents and retirees.
Long-term acute care hospitals have average lengths of stay of 25 days or more. They provide acute care services including respiratory therapy, head trauma treatment and pain management.
Psychiatric hospitals provide inpatient services for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness on a 24/7 basis under the supervision of a physician.
Rehabilitation hospitals specialize in improving or restoring patients’ functional abilities through therapy programs.
Religious non-medical health care institutions provide non-medical health care items and services on a 24-hour basis to people who need hospital or skilled nursing facility care, but for whom that care would be inconsistent with their religious beliefs.
Short-term acute care hospitals follow a traditional hospital model. Patients receive short-term emergency or non-urgent medical care for an injury, illness or other condition within an inpatient setting.
VA hospitals are administered by the Veteran’s Administration and funded by the federal government. They are responsible for the care of war veterans and other retired military personnel.
Most common hospital types in the U.S.
| Rank | Hospital type | Total number of hospitals | Percent of hospitals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Short-term acute care hospital | 3,882 | 53.1% |
| 2 | Critical access hospital | 1,354 | 18.5% |
| 3 | Psychiatric hospital | 803 | 11.0% |
| 4 | Rehabilitation hospital | 399 | 5.5% |
| 5 | Long-term acute care hospital | 394 | 5.4% |
| 6 | Children’s hospital | 263 | 3.6% |
| 7 | VA hospital | 161 | 2.2% |
| 8 | Department of Defense hospital | 36 | 0.5% |
| 9 | Religious non-medical health care institution | 16 | 0.2% |
Fig 1 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product. The total number of hospitals represents hospitals listed as “active”. Data accurate as of March 2022.
Over half of the hospitals in our HospitalView product are short-term acute care hospitals making them the most common type of hospital in the United States. Critical access hospitals are the second most common hospital type in the U.S. with over 1,300 hospitals nationwide.
