How many hospitals do you have?

eatmysoxRN, ASN, RN · Jun 10, 2013

The place I work is the only hospital that offers any type of advanced care within 40 miles. There are very small community facilities but they can't handle anything that needs more than just an ER can fix.

My hospital is small but good. Except the ratios. Ugh.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jun 10, 2013

Only hospital in the city. None others for a good 30-40 minutes any direction.

Level 2 trauma and we have a flight team partnered with the neighboring state that is stationed here.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Jun 10, 2013

We have one other in the county and yes, there is a lot of duplication in services. I believe we could offer more services if we did not try to duplicate. Both facilities send transplants, burns and Level I trauma to Dallas. If we weren't wasting so much money with duplication we could develop services to keep those patients here, closer to family.

ChristineN, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2013

I work in a large metro area, where my city alone has at least 9 hospitals, 3 Level 1 trauma centers and a Level 2. However if you go out a 20 mile radius, you will get like 10 more hospitals, including another massive Level 1 complete with cardiac and transplant (both of which are also found in the city).

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2013

I'm in a large metro area in Texas with nearly 7 million people. The city in which I reside has about 750,000 people, and the big city located 30 miles east of me (Dallas) has about 1.3 million people. When you add the populations of the 100+ suburbs located between and around the two big cities, the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area has a population of 6.8 million people.

Anyhow, 100+ hospitals are in the area. This includes acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehab hospitals, LTAC hospitals, heart hospitals, same day surgery hospitals, and other types of specialty hospitals. And yes, the various hospital systems advertise on billboards and are competing for 'business.'

Altra, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2013

Just because services are duplicated doesn't mean that there are excess services being offered.

From a patient perspective -- choice is good. Competition fosters development.

And tertiary care services such as Level I trauma, medical subspecialties and helicopter EMS serve a large region -- not just the local community of 300,000.

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · Jun 10, 2013

We are similar. Two teaching hospitals within miles of each other. three Level 1 traumas. Not enough psych services. Also have two other level ones within 50ish miles. Serve the whole central area of the state.

Rhi007 · Jun 10, 2013

We have 2x level 1 trauma centres, about 4x level 2 trauma centres, 1x women's and children's, countless number of rehab centres and that's just the public sector.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jun 10, 2013

Indianapolis - approximately 1 million people.

THREE major hospital systems (IU, St. Vincent and Community) and the large public hospital (Wishard/ Ashkenazi)

IU- Five hospitals including a pediatric hospital, Level I trauma, all the subspecialties- large med school and HUGE nursing school

Community - Three general hospitals, a smaller osteopathic facility (which is opening a med school in a few weeks) and a cardiac-only hospital

St. Vincent - two large facilities, one with Level I trauma, one new-ish smaller hospital, separate pediatric hospital AND women's hospital AND heart hospital, orthopedic hospital

calivianya, BSN, RN · Jun 11, 2013

We definitely have a huge number of hospitals in my area. We have several cities very close together, so it's a total metro area of around 1 million people, but still. We have at least six major hospitals (one level I trauma), two women's hospitals, a children's hospital (also level 1 trauma), a couple of behavioral health hospitals as well as a specific inpatient geropsych unit at one of the hospitals, several smaller community hospitals (at least four)... it's a little ridiculous. I'm not even going to count the urgent care centers/cancer centers/outpatient stuff, it feels like there's at least one on every corner. If you're willing to say that where I live includes things up to an hour away, those numbers at least triple because a nearby city less than 50 miles away has several med schools, nursing schools, teaching hospitals, etc.

I get that choice is good, but this is all covered by four major hospital systems and all four are facing budgeting problems. Two of the biggest hospitals have been laying off people and instituting hiring freezes, so I'm not sure the competition is good for the hospitals themselves. The last week I worked at a local hospital they only had 250-ish patients with more than 500 available beds. It doesn't seem sustainable to have so many hospitals clustered so closely together.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Jun 11, 2013

My area has something like 8 acute care hospitals, one Level 1 and two Level 2 trauma centers, all are stroke centers, 4 PCI centers, and if I were to expand things out a little bit, add in probably another 4 acute care hospitals, including another Level 2 trauma center. There are a couple of LTAC hospitals, too many SNF facilities to count...

The major city has a population of about 1.3 million, and probably 5-6 million in the entire metro area, and while we're closing down our second acute care hospital within the past 12 years or so, we're gaining a large expansion to an existing hospital that will take over all the functions and capacity of the one that's closing.

There aren't very many urgent care centers in the area, which is good. There are just enough that people don't have to drive more than 10-15 minutes to get to one, and usually, they won't have to go any further than that to reach the nearest ED.

All in all, we're probably OK as far as what the population will easily support.