Hospital bed counts can provide a granular measurement when assessing health system size.
There are about 920,000 staffed beds across U.S. hospitals. In conversation, hospital leaders express frustration today with the split position they find themselves in — they expect healthcare delivery to increasingly move out of the hospital, but there is need for more staffed beds today.
Inpatient hospital volumes are set to increase by 2% over the next 10 years. Healthcare consultant Sg2 notes that the case mix index — reflecting patient severity — is up 5% since 2019 while the average length of stay for patients admitted to a hospital has risen 10%.
Below are the top 25 U.S. health systems in descending order of hospital beds. Bed data is from the Compendium of U.S. Health Systems for 2022, released in December 2023, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Find a listing of the largest hospitals by beds and health systems by hospitals here.
HCA Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.): 37,478
CommonSpirit Health (Chicago): 17,107
Ascension Health (St. Louis): 16,103
Trinity Health (Livonia, Mich.): 14,706
Tenet Healthcare (Dallas): 12,690
Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.): 10,528
Community Health Systems (Franklin, Tenn.): 10,077
Providence (Renton, Wash.): 9,511
Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.): 9,217
AdventHealth (Altamonte Springs, Fla.): 8,041
Prime Healthcare Services (Ontario, Calif.): 6,473
Bon Secours Mercy Health (Cincinnati): 6,053
UPMC (Pittsburgh): 6,047
Lifepoint Health (Brentwood, Tenn.): 6,013
Universal Health Services (King of Prussia, Pa.): 5,792
Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.): 5,287
Banner Health (Phoenix): 5,189
Cleveland Clinic: 5,106
Corewell Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.): 4,689
Mercy (Chesterfield, Mo.): 4,453
Steward Health Care System (Dallas): 4,143
SSM Health (St. Louis): 4,105
Baylor Scott and White Health (Dallas): 3,991
RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange, N.J.): 3,972
NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System (New York City): 3,970