Costs and Quality of Care in Different Types of Hospitals

Abstract

American hospitals vary by type of ownership, type of patient treated, average length of stay, size, scope of services offered and teaching programs. This paper re views what is known about how these differences are related to costs and quality of care. The range of costs per case varies widely by type of hospital and size of hospital. Larger general hospitals have lower unit costs, while specialty and teaching hospitals, large or small, have higher costs than general hos pitals. Studies are needed to answer many questions about costs of hospitals, standardizing for case mix, quality of care, ownership, and organization.