How many clinics are in the united states

Other special hospitals include obstetrics and gynecology; eye, ear, nose, and throat; long term acute-care; rehabilitation; orthopedic; and other individually described specialty services.

Community hospitals include academic medical centers or other teaching hospitals if they are nonfederal short-term hospitals.

Excluded are hospitals not accessible by the general public, such as prison hospitals or college infirmaries. Other hospitals include nonfederal long term care hospitals and hospital units within an institution such as a prison hospital or school infirmary. Long term care hospitals may be defined by different methods; here they include other hospitals with an average length of stay of 30 or more days. Total intensive care beds are not summed because the care provided is specialized.

Medical-surgical intensive care. These units are staffed with specially trained nursing personnel and contain monitoring and specialized support equipment for patients who because of shock, trauma or other life-threatening conditions require intensified comprehensive observation and care.

Includes mixed intensive care units. Cardiac intensive care. The unit is staffed with specially trained nursing personnel and contains monitoring and specialized support or treatment equipment for patients who, because of heart seizure, open-heart surgery, or other life-threatening conditions, require intensified, comprehensive observation and care.

May include myocardial infarction, pulmonary care, and heart transplant units. Neonatal intensive care. A unit that must be separate from the newborn nursery providing intensive care to all sick infants including those with the very lowest birth weights less than grams. NICU has potential for providing mechanical ventilation, neonatal surgery, and special care for the sickest infants born in the hospital or transferred from another institution.

A full-time neonatologist serves as director of the NICU. Pediatric intensive care. Provides care to pediatric patients that is of a more intensive nature than that usually provided to pediatric patients.

The unit is staffed with specially trained personnel and contains monitoring and specialized support equipment for treatment of patients who, because of shock, trauma, or other life-threatening conditions, require intensified, comprehensive observation and care. Burn care. Provides care to severely burned patients. Those with the means to visit a hospital or private medical group often do.

The system is funded by a mix of federal and state sources, as well as private insurance and donations, in some cases. Still, millions of people across America continue to fall through the cracks. Receiving minimal to no federal or state funding, free clinics survive on the donations and volunteers from the communities in which they are based.

There are more than 1, free clinics in the U. S and about 2 million patients received care at one of them in the past year, according to the most recent statistics from NAFC. Reflecting this reality, more than free and charitable clinics have been established in the U. These individuals can then face high deductibles and monthly premiums, which can make coverage options unaffordable, thus leaving them either literally or effectively uninsured.

The second-most cited reason, after legal and insurance-based issues, was fear of deportation. Even with Medicaid coverage, patients often run up against logistical impediments to care, like finding a doctor who accepts new Medicaid patients and finding an appointment time within a relevant time frame. Clinics are invited to join the research network through a variety of recruitment techniques including presentations and exhibits at conferences; emails to the Mobile Healthcare Association members listserv; webinars and conferences sponsored by Institute for Healthcare Improvement, including the Million Healthier Lives program and a U.

Human Resources and Services Administration webinar series for grantees and grantors; and direct solicitation through online searches. Mobile Health Map consistently ranks among the top results for web searches about mobile health care resulting in many new additions to the network.

Of the estimated clinics around the country, a total of had joined the network as of April 24, , including new clinics since Clinics are asked to report on all indicators to the best of their knowledge as frequently as possible on an annual basis.

The database includes information on clinic office locations city, state, country, and zip code. Clinics designate their target populations employees, LGBTQ, public housing, schools, minorities, migrants, veterans, rural, homeless, low income, uninsured, and other populations.

They provide data on the types of care offered prevention, dental, primary, mammography, maternal and infant health, pediatric, asthma, mental health, disaster relief, and other. The data presented represents the data collected over the entire year period — , with only the most recently updated data presented for each clinic if they reported during multiple years.

Results were compared to a preliminary analysis from If a clinic reported updated information since , the updated information was used in our analysis. However, if a clinic has not reported since that time period, the insurance status of clients, for example, when they did report, was still used in our analysis.

Clinic services, cost, and client demographic data were exported from Mobile Health Map website into Microsoft Excel. Aggregate client demographic information from the online impact and quality tools were uploaded to Qualtrics [ 15 ] and subsequently exported into Microsoft Excel.

The estimated proportions across all clinics were derived from an unweighted mean of the estimate measurements provided by each individual clinic. This approach was used because the goal of the analysis was to provide averages across clinics with the clinic being the unit of observation, rather than summarizing data at the individual level. While the use of a weighted average was considered to give greater weight to clinics with higher volume, this type of analysis was not possible because only of the clinics provided total patient volume.

The number of clinics reporting on each variable differed and is depicted in the text, figured, and tables. Mobile Health Clinics Affiliations. To cover these costs, mobile health clinics depend heavily on philanthropy and government funding. Thirty-two percent of clinics reported client payments as a source of revenue. Reported Sources of Funding for Clinics.

Two hundred ninety-one mobile clinics report on the specific groups they target. A variable number of clinics reported on each data element. Of the mobile clinics that reported information on the number of visits, the median number of annual visits was with an interquartile range IQR of to One hundred sixty-six clinics also reported the number of new visitors annually, of which the median was new visits with an IQR of to One hundred ninty-two clinics reported gender distribution.

A category for transgender people was recently added. Many mobile clinics aim to reach populations with limited access to care. To understand which client populations the clinics were designed to serve, clinics are asked to report the group or groups they target. Mobile clinics have the option to report on the type of services they offer.

Mammography, pediatric, mental health, asthma, maternal and infant health, disaster relief, vision, and other specialty services are also provided by mobile clinics. Services Reported by Mobile Clinics. Louis Fig. There are also clinics located in less populated areas. This figure is a May screenshot of mobile clinics mapped by MobileHealthMap. The red markers denote a single clinic. They are located across the United States and operate with the financial support of health care systems, universities, philanthropy, and government agencies.

The people and organizations that operate mobile clinics are often motivated by a commitment to underserved communities and use the mobile clinic as a vehicle to deliver care in ways that differ from traditional medical settings.

For example, Bouchelle and colleagues reported that The Family Van, a mobile clinic in Boston, creates a culture of respect and inclusivity [ 16 ]. In many instances, mobile clinics serve as a bridge between communities and the health care system. As health care leaders and policymakers increasingly recognize the importance of social determinants of health and community-clinical linkages, mobile clinics are well-positioned to further these goals.

Using the median number of annual visits and the estimated to mobile clinics nationwide, we estimate 5. Assuming the lower estimate of 5. Mobile clinics saw a greater percentage of people of color than then the general U. Census In the same census, In this group of mobile clinics, the average percentage of Latino or Hispanic clients was This drop may be due to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

It suggests that many mobile clinics that previously served uninsured patients adapted to the new health care environment and are able to bill insurance for visits that were previously supported through other means, like philanthropy. Mobile health clinics straddle the community and health care system. They often address important social determinants of health including food and housing insecurity, education, and job opportunities. By collaborating with local agencies such as churches, community health centers, and other hospitals and clinics, mobile clinics connect community members with both medical and social services.

Though mobile clinics operate all over the country, they are commonly located in densely populated cities. There is a lack of clinics in the rural parts of every state and many parts of the Midwest, and as a result, populations that may continue to be void of adequate access to health care and areas where mobile clinics can have an impact.

Mobile Health Map is a powerful tool for the mobile health sector to understand itself and demonstrate its role in the greater health care system. This information can help policy makers, payers and providers understand the services they provide and the vulnerable populations they serve. Understanding this will help clinics advocate for their role as a critical part of the health care safety-net and experts in community-clinic linkage.

Mobile Health Map is a pioneer in the mobile health sector and is the source of much of the existing scholarship in the area [ 3 , 14 , 18 ]. The database allows researchers and practitioners to monitor and evaluate the sector and its impact.

Further research is needed to understand the changing role of mobile health care in value-based payment models, as well as how mobile health providers integrate behavioral health services. Of the estimated mobile clinics around the nation, were registered with the Mobile Health Map as of April 24, These programs are self-selected and self-reporting. Because there is no similar database of mobile clinics, it is not possible to evaluate the representativeness of our sample.

While some clinics outside the U. However, for a health care sector previously uncharted, this sample gives us a broad picture of the state of mobile health in the U.