Most people don’t think about hospitals until they have to use them. Yet, there is a lot that goes on inside the walls of a hospital … healing, hope and employment for hundreds of people. Here are some things you may not know about Alabama’s hospitals.
Quick facts:
- 106 general, community hospitals, plus additional specialty hospitals
- 59,000 babies born each year
- Almost 600,000 inpatients and 8.7 million outpatient visits annually
- Click for a hospital directory, including links by county.
Huge economic impact:
- Provide 80,000 jobs, plus another 88,976 jobs indirectly
- Provide about $4.5 billion in salaries and benefits, which results in another $2.9 billion indirectly for a total of $7.4 billion in labor income for the state.
- Overall economic impact is $20.4 billion each year!
Continually improving care:
- Alabama was ranked number one in the country in the first year of Medicare’s pay-for-performance program (an incentive program based on quality improvement and achievement).
- Recent CDC report ranked Alabama and California as top two states in the nation in infection prevention when considering infections currently being reported by hospitals.
- Find out more about Alabama’s hospitals and their quality efforts and scores – Join the Health Journey.
Threats to these assets:
There are several financial challenges facing hospitals that we believe community leaders should know about, ones that threaten the viability of many hospitals:
- Expenses continue to rise.
- Revenue continues to decrease.
- Alabama’s hospitals get paid almost half as much as hospitals in other states due to inequitable payment formula. Learn more.
- About 13 percent of Alabama’s adults don’t have insurance, and hospitals provide more than $300 million each year in free care.
- The result is that 69 percent of Alabama’s hospitals are currently operating in the read. Read more.