Hospital system in the USA

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Julius Fuchs - 12 Oct 2007 08:51 GMT

Hello,

I'm currently writing a term paper about hospitals in the US and CEO
compensation. Unfortunately I'm from Germany, so I have no immediate
experience with the US hospital system and I find it very difficult to find
information about it.
So there are public, nonprofit and for-profit hospitals; district hospitals
are public hospitals which are located primarily in rural areas. They have
the right to levy special taxes and the board of directors is elected by
residents of the district. But what about the other public hospitals? They
are financed by general taxes? Are there elections for the board of
directors as well or are they appointed?

And in this overview:
http://www.aha.org/aha/resource-center/Statistics-and-Studies/fast-facts.html -
where are the discrict hospitals?

Thanks in advance for your support!

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Howard McCollister - 15 Oct 2007 13:13 GMT

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> are financed by general taxes? Are there elections for the board of
> directors as well or are they appointed?

Public hospitals try, with varying degrees of success, to be
self-supporting. Sometimes they can't be, depending on their patient
population. Those with a high degree of poor and/or uninsured are often
supported by some degree of taxation. Some public hospitals have a different
patient population with a greater number of insured patients and require
minimal, if any, taxation to be financially viable.

District hospitals do indeed usually have a board elected by the public.
Others are appointed, and their actions must be reviewed and approved by the
governmental entity that owns that hospital, such as a city council for a
city hospital, a county board for a county hospital.

HMc

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