Which hospital should I choose to give me the best care for my condition?

Did you know? There are more than 5000 hospitals in the United States, just as many questions as appears when it comes to finding the right hospital for our healthcare.

The American Hospital Association conducts an annual survey of hospitals in the United States. AHA Hospital Statistics includes current and historical data on utilization, personnel, revenue, expenses, managed care contracts, community health indicators, physician models, and much more. They reported 5,534 registered hospitals in the U.S.

Can my family stay in my room with me?, Can my condition be treated here?, Will there be a doctor in the hospital to provide care if I get very sick?… and the list can continue forever. Depending on your needs, you should look for the right hospital.

The main factors to consider when choosing a hospital:

• Identify the care you need and what your hospital has to offer;
• Check your hospital insurance coverage and think about your personal and financial needs;
• Find and compare hospitals based on functionality, size, location, and ownership;
• Compare the results of certain measures of quality and talk with family members or friends about the hospitals you’re comparing;
• Talk to your doctor and choose the hospital that’s best for you.

When comparing hospitals it’s good to take into consideration a variety of factors like functionality, size, location, and ownership. It’s important to know how the hospitals themselves function within the communities they serve. Do you want a hospital located near your home or other family members? Rural hospitals or urban hospitals? All of this must meet your needs in terms of location and other factors, like visiting hours.

Also, when it comes to size, hospitals are classified by the number of beds they have:

• Small hospitals: fewer than 100 beds
• Medium hospitals: 100 to 499 beds
• Large hospitals: 500 or more beds

Now, it’s time to explore the many types of hospitals and learn about what they have to offer!

A hospital may be a single building or a number of buildings in a campus. Some are private, non-profit organization or public hospitals, owned by the government which receive government funding.

In order to offer educational opportunities for students in the healthcare field, academic medical centers serve all these medical needs for schools and universities. Ambulatory surgery centers or ASCs focus on same-day surgical care in a convenient environment that is less stressful than what many hospitals can offer. ASCs may complete different surgeries in several specialties or dedicate their services to one specialty, such as eye care or sports medicine.

Children’s hospitals offer medical treatment to children and adolescents. This means that the entire medical team has special education and training to aid in the treatment of children for a variety of acute and long-term medical needs.

Clinics are much smaller than hospitals where patients are less sick and do not stay overnight. Here you can schedule an appointment in order to verify your healthcare and obtain immediate results. Many clinics are operating as private entities and partnerships among surgeons or private physicians.

Community Hospitals play an important role in the United States health care. The American Hospital Association (AHA) defines community hospitals as “all nonfederal, short-term general, and other special hospitals.” Special hospitals include “those dedicated to obstetrics and gynecology; eye, ear, nose, and throat; rehabilitation; orthopedic; and other individually described specialty services.” Also, AHA has reported that there are 4,974 community hospitals operating in the U.S. today –  3,003 urban and 1,971 rural.

Specialty hospitals with many different specialty facilities offer specific treatments for all patients. You’ll find a variety of specialty hospitals, including:

• Women’s hospitals
• Children’s hospitals
• Cardiac hospitals
• Oncology hospitals
• Psychiatric hospitals
• Trauma centers
• Cancer treatment centers

Choosing the right hospital can be a very hard task, but with all mentioned above, we consider that we made a little bit of light on this important subject. If you have any other questions regarding hospitals in the United States, feel free to contact us.

Your health is an investment, not an expense!