More than 200 of California's 400 acute care hospitals have buildings that are in danger of collapse during an earthquake and must be replaced by 2013, according to a new report.
This information comes from the latest issue of California Hospital Facts & Figures, an overview of the state's general acute care facilities, which accounted for nearly 90 percent of the state's 512 hospitals in 2007.
The analysis, the most recent data available to the California HealthCare Foundation and published as part of its California Health Care Almanac, also discovered that the number of general acute care hospitals in California decreased 4 percent between 2001 and 2007, while the state's population increased nearly 10 percent.
The hospital report shows trends in facility and bed supply and capacity, geographic distribution, ownership type and financial health.
The report also revealed that the state's seven-largest hospital systems account for more than one-third of the hospitals and licensed beds in California; that nonprofit hospitals are better off financially than their for-profit counterparts; and that charity care provided by California hospitals rose by 23 percent between 2001 and 2007.
The California Health Care Almanac is an online clearinghouse for key data and analysis examining California's healthcare marketplace.