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
45 Rural Hospitals
6 Level I Trauma Centers
18 Specialty Hospitals
Colorado hospitals are often the economic anchor of their communities, creating more prosperous local economies, providing community leadership, and paying taxes to their 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 2024, Colorado hospitals:
- Cared for 496K inpatients, who spent a cumulative 2.26M days in the hospital
- Delivered 62K babies
- Stabilized 1M people in the ER
- Treated 760K behavioral health and substance use patients
- Provided 10M outpatient hospital visits
Colorado hospitals provide or support 111K jobs in the state. In rural areas, health care is a top three industry, employing one in 10 rural Coloradans.
- Colorado hospitals train over 1.8K 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
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In the most recent reporting year, Colorado hospitals invested $1.76 billion in their communities, including:
- $1.1B in uncompensated services for Medicaid patients
- $475M in free or reduced-cost health care services
- $28M in programs addressing behavioral health
- $17M in programs addressing social determinants of health
- $51M in other programs addressing community-based health care
- $92M in other investments that address community-identified needs
- Colorado hospitals gave $3.7B of subsidy and support to provide health care services for Medicare and Medicaid patients throughout the state, a 58% increase over the last six years.
- Colorado hospitals have supported Medicaid coverage and expansion for an additional 483K Coloradans.
Additional Resources
