Healthcare Insights
Top 25 government hospitals by number of staffed beds
In the United States, there are several different ownership models for hospitals. These models include proprietary, voluntary nonprofit, and governmental ownership.
Governmental hospitals are facilities that are run by the U.S. federal, state, or local government. Government hospitals are typically exclusively funded by the government as well as taxpayer dollars. Because of this, government hospitals are also sometimes referred to as public hospitals.
Using Definitive Healthcare’s HospitalView product, we’ve compiled a list of the top 25 largest government hospitals ranked by the number of staffed beds according to the most recent 12-month interval tracked in our database.
Government-owned hospitals with the most staffed beds
| Rank | Hospital name | City | State | Ownership | # of staffed beds | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jackson Memorial Hospital | Miami | FL | Government - County | 1,504 | Explore |
| 2 | Mayo Clinic Hospital - Saint Mary’s Campus | Rochester | MN | Government - City | 1,143 | Explore |
| 3 | Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center | Charlotte | NC | Government - Hospital District | 1,134 | Explore |
| 4 | UAB Hospital | Birmingham | AL | Government - State | 1,129 | Explore |
| 5 | DSH - Metropolitan | Norwalk | CA | Government - State | 1,004 | Explore |
| 6 | University Hospital | Ann Arbor | MI | Government - Other | 951 | Explore |
| 7 | The University of Kansas Hospital | Kansas City | KS | Government - Other | 940 | Explore |
| 8 | Huntsville Hospital | Huntsville | AL | Government - Other | 904 | Explore |
| 9 | FMC Butner | Butner | NC | Government - Federal | 900 | Explore |
| 10 | Santa Clara Valley Medical Center | San Jose | CA | Government - County | 827 | Explore |
| 11 | UNC Medical Center | Chapel Hill | NC | Government - Other | 811 | Explore |
| 12 | UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights | San Francisco | CA | Government - State | 809 | Explore |
| 13 | John Sealy Hospital | Galveston | TX | Government - State | 804 | Explore |
| 14 | Parkland Health | Dallas | TX | Government - Hospital District | 801 | Explore |
| 15 | Mayo Clinic Hospital - Methodist Campus | Rochester | MN | Government - City | 794 | Explore |
| 16 | Western State Hospital | Lakewood | WA | Government - State | 771 | Explore |
| 17 | University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center | Houston | TX | Government - State | 739 | Explore |
| 18 | University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics | Iowa City | IA | Government - State | 732 | Explore |
| 19 | Stony Brook University Hospital | Stony Brook | NY | Government - State | 725 | Explore |
| 20 | VCU Medical Center Main Hospital | Richmond | VA | Government - Other | 725 | Explore |
| 21 | Biloxi VA Medical Center | Biloxi | MS | Government - Federal | 716 | Explore |
| 22 | Sarasota Memorial Hospital | Sarasota | FL | Government - County | 713 | Explore |
| 23 | University Hospital | Jackson | MS | Government - State | 697 | Explore |
| 24 | Erlanger Baroness Hospital | Chattanooga | TN | Government - Hospital District | 691 | Explore |
| 25 | Spartanburg Medical Center | Spartanburg | SC | Government - County | 668 | Explore |
Fig. 1. Data is from Definitive Healthcare’s HospitalView product. Data on staffed beds is from the January 2023 Medicare Cost Report release and represents the most recent 12-month interval tracked in our database. Data is accurate as of February 2023.
Which government hospitals have the most staffed beds?
The government hospital with the most staffed beds is Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. Jackson Memorial Hospital is owned by Miami-Dade County through the Public Health Trust and has 1,504 staffed beds. Only four out of the top 25 hospitals are owned by the county that they operate in, with the second county-owned hospital not appearing until number 10 on this list.
The government hospital with the second most staffed beds is Mayo Clinic Hospital - Saint Mary’s Campus, located in Rochester, Minnesota. This facility has a total of 1,143 staffed beds and is owned by the city of Rochester. It is one of only two city-owned hospitals on this list.
The third-place government hospital is Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. This hospital has 1,134 staffed beds and is the flagship facility for the health system Atrium Health. The hospital is part of a hospital district, which is a public entity that provides community-based healthcare services to residents throughout a designated geographical area. Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center is a part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, a municipal hospital authority established under North Carolina's Hospital Authorities Act. This hospital is one of three hospitals owned by a hospital district on this list.
The average number of staffed beds among the top 25 government hospitals is 865. Additionally, nine hospitals on the list are state-owned, making it the most common type of government ownership on this list, followed by “other” (meaning any other form of government ownership) with five hospitals.
What are the different types of government ownership?
There are several different types of ownership when it comes to government hospitals, the largest being federal, meaning that it is owned and operated by the federal government.
There are about 200 of these federal government hospitals operating in the United States, and they are overseen by the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Veterans Health Administration (VA).
State-owned hospitals are owned by the state governments where the hospital resides. In addition, government hospitals can be owned by counties as well as by cities. Hospital districts can also own a hospital, and hospital districts must be established by state legislation.
Why are government/public hospitals important to healthcare?
Government/public hospitals are important to healthcare because they often offer healthcare services to specific populations, such as active military members, or their local community. In addition, because these facilities are paid for by the government and tax dollars, they can often offer their services free of charge or heavily discounted.
Furthermore, these facilities help improve overall health by helping these patients prevent other health conditions from occurring through early interventions.
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