Hospitals 101
What You Need to Know:
Colorado’s hospitals are as diverse as the state they serve. This state’s 100 hospitals come in all shapes and sizes, from large academic medical centers along the Front Range to rural hospitals in mountain communities, and small critical access hospitals in frontier areas of the Western Slope and Eastern Plains. Among Colorado’s hospitals are:
88 Acute Care Hospitals
44 Rural Hospitals
6 Level I Trauma Centers
12 Specialty Hospitals
Colorado hospitals are often the economic anchor of their communities, creating more prosperous local economies, providing community leadership, and paying taxes resulting in a total indirect impact to Coloradans of nearly $40B throughout the state and $4.9B in rural communities. Interested in learning more about your local hospital? Click here to find it and read more.
Colorado Hospital Perspective: Whether big or small, every hospital in Colorado works hard to meet the needs of our patients, our staff members, and our communities. Click below to learn more or visit the Hospitals: Here for You webpage.
Hospital costs in Colorado are much better than the U.S. average. In the most recent analysis of health expenditures by state, hospital costs in Colorado were $692 lower for each person than the U.S. average.
In 2023, Colorado hospitals:
- Cared for 487K inpatients, who spent a cumulative 6M days in the hospital
- Delivered 60K babies
- Stabilized 1M people in the ER
- Treated 764K behavioral health and substance use patients
- Provided 8M outpatient hospital visits
Colorado hospitals provide or support 100K jobs in the state. In rural areas, hospital employees represent a large share of the community impact by providing nearly 16K jobs and $1.03B of labor expenses.
- Colorado hospitals train over 1.3K of tomorrow’s physicians per year through residency programs within the federal Graduate Medical Education program.
- Hospitals have invested more than $1B in strengthening the health care workforce since 2020:
- Employee wellness
- Workforce development
- Tuition reimbursement/student loan assistance
- Pay increases
- Incentive bonuses
- In the most recent reporting year, Colorado hospitals invested $2.1B in their communities, including:
- $863 million in uncompensated services for Medicaid patients
- $399 million in free or reduced-cost health care services
- $54 million in programs addressing health behaviors or risks
- $602 million in programs addressing social determinants of health
- $174 million in other investments that address community-identified needs
- Colorado hospitals gave $3.2B of subsidy and support to provide health care services for Medicare and Medicaid patients throughout the state, a 28 percent increase over the last 5 years.
- Colorado hospitals have supported Medicaid coverage and expansion for an additional 668,000 Coloradans, a 34 percent increase from 2020.
