According
to the American Hospital Association,
hospitals
are licensed institutions with at least six beds whose primary function is
to provide diagnostic and therapeutic patient services for medical
conditions by an organized physician staff, and have continuous nursing
services under the supervision of registered nurses. The World
Health Organization considers an establishment to be a hospital if it is
permanently staffed by at least one physician, can offer inpatient
accommodation, and can provide active medical and nursing care. Hospitals
may be classified by type of service, ownership, size in terms of number
of beds, and length of stay. In the National
Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS),
hospitals include all those with an average length of stay for all
patients of less than 30 days (short-stay) or hospitals whose specialty is
general (medical or surgical) or children's general. Federal hospitals and
hospital units of institutions and hospitals with fewer than six beds
staffed for patient use are excluded. Community
hospitals based on the American Hospital Association definition,
includes all non-Federal short-term general and special hospitals whose
facilities and services are available to the public. Special hospitals
include obstetrics and gynecology; eye, ear, nose, and throat;
rehabilitation; orthopedic; and other specialty services. Short-term
general and special children's hospitals are also considered to be
community hospitals. A hospital may include a nursing-home-type unit and
still be classified as short-term, provided that the majority of its
patients are admitted to units where the average length of stay is less
than 30 days. Hospital units of institutions such as prisons and college
infirmaries that are not open to the public and are contained within a
nonhospital facility are not included in the category of community
hospitals. Traditionally the definition included all non-Federal
short-stay hospitals except facilities for the mentally retarded. In a
revised definition the following additional sites were excluded: hospital
units of institutions, and alcoholism and chemical dependency facilities. Federal
hospitals are
operated by the Federal Government. For
Profit hospitals are
operated for profit by individuals,
partnerships, or corporations. General
hospitals provide diagnostic, treatment, and surgical services
for patients with a variety of medical conditions. According to the World
Health Organization, these hospitals provide medical and
nursing care for more than one category of medical discipline (for
example, general medicine, specialized medicine, general surgery,
specialized surgery, and obstetrics). Excluded are hospitals, usually
in rural areas, that provide a more limited range of care. Nonprofit
hospitals are operated by a church or other nonprofit
organization. Psychiatric
hospitals are hospitals whose major type of service is
psychiatric care. Registered
hospitals are hospitals registered with the
American Hospital
Association. About 98 percent of hospitals are registered. Short-stay
hospitals in the National
Hospital Discharge Survey
are those in which the average length of stay is less than 30 days. The National
Health Interview Survey defines short-stay hospitals as any hospital or
hospital department in which the type of service provided is
general; maternity; eye, ear, nose, and throat; children’s; or osteopathic. Specialty
hospitals, such as psychiatric, tuberculosis, chronic disease, rehabilitation, maternity, and alcoholic or narcotic,
provide
a particular type of service to the majority of their patients.