June 04, 2010 01:44am EST 

In general, there are two types of hospitals in the United States. They are described as either short-stay or long-term, depending on the length of time a patient spends before discharge, and they number upwards of sixty-five hundred. Short-stay hospitals include community, teaching, and public hospitals. These are often referred to as acute care facilities because they provide care aimed at resolving a pressing problems, such as a heart attack, rather than long-term chronic conditions that require rehabilitation (e.g. head injury). Long-term hospitals are usually rehabilitation or psychiatric hospitals and facilities. In addition to these two categories, they are also distinguished by their ownership, services provided, and whether they are a teaching hospital affiliated with a institute for higher education. They may be for-profit, owned by companies or individuals such as physicians on staff, or they may be not-for-profit corporations, religious organizations, or operated by federal, state, or city governments.
Community Hospitals
This most common type of hospital in the United States is the community, or general, hospital. These hospitals provide quality care for routine medical and surgical problems. They are also often accompanied by a full medical and surgical staff and state-of-the-art equipment.
Some community hospitals are non-profit, and supported by local funding. However, starting in the 90’s, increasing numbers have changed into proprietary hospitals that are owned and operated on a for-profit basis by corporations. They do this to compete in an increasingly cut-throat industry and the financial resources made available to them from their investors allow them to stay one step ahead.
Teaching Hospitals
Most teaching hospitals, which provide clinical training for medical students and other health care professionals, are affiliated with a medical school and may have several hundred beds. Many of the physicians on staff at the hospital also hold teaching positions within the university affiliated with the hospital in addition to teaching physicians-in-training at the hospital.
While obtaining care at a teaching hospital gives you the opportunity to receive the most up-to-date care from some of the most highly qualified physicians in the country, a disadvantage is that students and residents may have to submit you to multiple examinations. In addition, when compared to a smaller community hospital, these larger hospitals have the unwanted stigma of being impersonal.
Public hospitals
Public hospitals are owned and operated by federal, state, or municipal governments. Many have a long-standing tradition of caring for the poor. They are often located in the inner cities and are often in an unstable financial state due to patients being unable to pay their bills. These hospitals depend mainly on Medicaid payments supplied by the respective government agencies. Medicaid was instituted to provide health care insurance to people younger than 65 who cannot afford to pay for private health care. Medicare provides similar services for those older than 65.