Patients by the numbers

• We receive about 9.2 million outpatient visits and 612,000 inpatient visits a year.
• The average inpatient stay lasts 4.25 days.¹
• The average number of inpatient days per capita is 0.44.²
• We see 1.66 million patients in our emergency departments each year.
• 410,000 same-day surgeries are performed, and there are about 7.1 million visits for a variety of other hospital-based treatments or procedures, from kidney dialysis to follow-up X rays.
• The top reasons for inpatient stays relate to births, mental health, orthopedic procedures, and digestive disorders.

Providing needed access

• All of Minnesota hospitals' emergency rooms treat anyone who enters, regardless of ability to pay. There are 130 24-hour emergency rooms in the state.
• There are 79 rural hospitals in Minnesota with the federal Critical Access Hospital designation, which means they receive cost-based federal payments to preserve access to care in rural areas: see list of hospitals.
• Minnesota has the lowest percentage of uninsured adults of any state in the nation, at 7.4 percent.

Our impact on the economy

• We buy $4.25 billion in goods and services a year.
• We spend another $6.3 billion per year on salaries and benefits.
• We employ about 108,000 people.
• We are engines of job growth: Nearly one-fourth of all job vacancies in the state are in health care.

Our financing

• State and federal government programs account for about 53 percent of hospital patient charges.¹
• Hospitals are consistently being reimbursed below the cost of care. That means, in effect, the government is shifting the costs of caring for people to commercial insurers.
• About 16 percent of hospitals operated in the red in 2008¹. 61 percent had a margin under 5 percent¹, which is the minimum amount experts say hospitals need to be able to make needed investments in technology, buildings and staff.

Hospitals by the numbers

• Minnesota has 151 hospitals in the state -- 148 of which are members of MHA. The three other hospitals include the two Indian Health Services hospitals and a sole proprietary hospital.
• 54 hospitals are publicly owned by a city, county, district, state, or federal jurisdiction³.
• 87 hospitals are a part of larger health systems³.
• The hospital with the largest number of staffed beds in the state is Mayo Clinic, Rochester - which includes Rochester Methodist Hospital, Saint Marys Hospital and Mayo Psychiatric Hospital -- with 2,175 licensed beds¹.
• The system with the greatest number of hospitals is Allina Hospitals & Clinics, with 11 hospitals and 2,645 licensed beds¹.
• Minnesota's oldest hospital is St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul and its youngest hospital is Maple Grove Hospital in Maple Grove.

¹Source: Health Care Cost Information System (HCCIS) 2008 Database.
²Source: UB-92 Administrative Data
³Source: MHA Membership Database