United States · Beds
Fewer hospitals, fuller beds: general hospitals filled 68% of their beds in 2024, up from 63% in 2019
315 fewer general hospitals filed Medicare cost reports than in 2011, with 22,017 fewer beds, while more patients stayed overnight. 481 hospitals were at least 80% full on an average night, up from 253.
· Medicare cost reports, fiscal years 2011 to 2024
Occupancy is the share of a hospital's beds that hold a patient on an average night. For general hospitals as a whole it sat near 63% for most of the last decade: 62.8% in 2011, 62.7% in 2019. Then it climbed, to 68.2% in 2024, the highest in the 14 years these cost reports cover.
Share of beds filled on an average night, general hospitals
Patient days over bed days available, all general hospitals together and by size.
Source: Medicare cost reports (HCRIS), Worksheet S-3, hospital total line. Every general hospital whose beds agree with its bed-days, 3,091 in 2024.
Large hospitals fill more of their beds than small ones, and all three sizes rose together after 2019. Hospitals with 300 beds or more went from 71% to 76%; those under 100 beds, from 39% to 43%.
Fewer beds, more patients
Two things moved at once. The number of general hospitals filing cost reports fell from 3,487 to 3,172, and their beds from 651,563 to 629,546. Meanwhile the patients in those beds on an average night rose from 407,630 to 426,663. Some of the hospitals that stopped filing are on this list.
Beds and the patients in them on an average night, general hospitals
All general hospitals whose beds agree with their bed-days, each year.
Source: Medicare cost reports (HCRIS), Worksheet S-3. Patients on an average night are patient days over the days a report covers.
The count of patients leaves some out. Patients kept for observation, who are not formally admitted, take beds too but are not counted in patient days. Their number on an average night rose 1.8 times over the same years, from 18,490 to 34,079.
More hospitals running near full
A unit that is full most nights has little room for a bad week. In 2024, 481 general hospitals filled at least 80% of their beds on an average night, against 253 in 2011 and 241 in 2019. 136 were at 90% or more.
General hospitals at least 80% full on an average night
Each square is 10 hospitals.
= 10 hospitals
Source: Medicare cost reports (HCRIS), Worksheet S-3.
Almost every state
Occupancy rose from 2019 to 2024 in 49 of the 51 states (with the District of Columbia) where three or more general hospitals report. The fullest in 2024: Massachusetts (80%), New York (79%) and Maryland (78%). The emptiest: Wyoming, at 36%.
Change in occupancy, 2019 to 2024, percentage points
General hospitals in each state together. Blue rose, orange fell.
- −8 pts or less
- −8 pts to −5 pts
- −5 pts to −2 pts
- −2 pts to +2 pts
- +2 pts to +5 pts
- +5 pts to +8 pts
- +8 pts or more
Source: Medicare cost reports (HCRIS), Worksheet S-3. States with three or more reporting hospitals in both years.
How these figures were made
- General (short-term acute) hospitals whose cost report beds agree with their bed-days: patient days over bed days available, all such hospitals each year.
- Beds here are the beds a cost report counts as available: set up and staffed. A hospital's license usually allows more, so occupancy of licensed beds would be lower. Beds and occupancy follow the hospital total line of Worksheet S-3, which leaves out units with their own Medicare numbers, such as some psychiatric and rehabilitation units.
- A report counts when its beds agree with its bed-days and it does not report more patient days than bed days; the square-foot checks the other stories use do not apply here. The hospital count is every general hospital that filed for the year.
- The space around those beds kept growing while they filled: see more building, not more beds. Whether hospitals add the beds they ask states for: promised beds.
| Year | Hospitals filing | Beds | Patients per night | Occupancy | 80% or fuller |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 3,487 | 651,563 | 407,630 | 62.8% | 253 |
| 2012 | 3,496 | 648,621 | 400,194 | 62.0% | 220 |
| 2013 | 3,467 | 645,515 | 394,103 | 61.3% | 209 |
| 2014 | 3,448 | 643,482 | 397,211 | 62.1% | 247 |
| 2015 | 3,411 | 641,309 | 400,256 | 62.7% | 257 |
| 2016 | 3,374 | 637,247 | 397,816 | 62.7% | 236 |
| 2017 | 3,347 | 638,335 | 398,653 | 62.7% | 232 |
| 2018 | 3,313 | 636,897 | 400,546 | 63.2% | 269 |
| 2019 | 3,271 | 638,023 | 398,147 | 62.7% | 241 |
| 2020 | 3,244 | 637,595 | 395,363 | 62.3% | 246 |
| 2021 | 3,222 | 637,120 | 422,006 | 66.5% | 433 |
| 2022 | 3,215 | 636,359 | 418,185 | 66.0% | 414 |
| 2023 | 3,210 | 633,526 | 419,770 | 66.6% | 421 |
| 2024 | 3,172 | 629,546 | 426,663 | 68.2% | 481 |
| State | 2019 | 2024 | Hospitals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 72.0% | 79.5% | 53 |
| New York | 74.9% | 79.4% | 129 |
| Maryland | 71.9% | 77.9% | 43 |
| the District of Columbia | 79.3% | 77.8% | 6 |
| Washington | 69.5% | 76.3% | 47 |
| Delaware | 67.4% | 76.0% | 6 |
| Georgia | 68.0% | 75.2% | 93 |
| Nevada | 74.5% | 75.0% | 22 |
| North Carolina | 67.5% | 74.8% | 80 |
| Hawaii | 64.9% | 74.3% | 11 |
| Connecticut | 69.2% | 74.0% | 26 |
| New Hampshire | 68.7% | 72.8% | 13 |
| Maine | 67.0% | 72.5% | 17 |
| Oregon | 65.0% | 71.8% | 32 |
| North Dakota | 64.7% | 71.5% | 7 |
| New Jersey | 67.1% | 71.0% | 61 |
| South Carolina | 62.4% | 70.9% | 51 |
| Minnesota | 65.8% | 69.9% | 46 |
| Tennessee | 64.2% | 69.5% | 77 |
| Florida | 64.2% | 69.4% | 170 |
| Michigan | 63.7% | 69.2% | 91 |
| Texas | 61.2% | 68.6% | 270 |
| Virginia | 64.8% | 68.5% | 70 |
| Alaska | 63.1% | 67.6% | 8 |
| Pennsylvania | 58.7% | 67.5% | 132 |
| Ohio | 59.8% | 66.4% | 115 |
| California | 60.0% | 65.9% | 273 |
| Arizona | 61.4% | 65.3% | 65 |
| Rhode Island | 64.3% | 65.1% | 10 |
| Colorado | 63.5% | 65.0% | 51 |
| Alabama | 59.1% | 64.9% | 79 |
| Nebraska | 59.1% | 64.3% | 25 |
| West Virginia | 60.8% | 64.2% | 25 |
| Iowa | 59.0% | 63.9% | 30 |
| Wisconsin | 59.2% | 63.7% | 65 |
| Missouri | 59.1% | 63.0% | 64 |
| New Mexico | 60.5% | 62.7% | 25 |
| Illinois | 59.0% | 62.5% | 115 |
| Indiana | 58.9% | 62.4% | 82 |
| Kentucky | 56.9% | 61.9% | 61 |
| Oklahoma | 56.5% | 61.6% | 72 |
| Idaho | 55.6% | 60.6% | 16 |
| Utah | 53.0% | 59.9% | 33 |
| Vermont | 70.0% | 59.8% | 5 |
| Montana | 54.8% | 59.4% | 11 |
| South Dakota | 55.7% | 58.9% | 18 |
| Kansas | 54.8% | 57.9% | 45 |
| Louisiana | 52.1% | 55.6% | 82 |
| Arkansas | 53.1% | 55.3% | 44 |
| Mississippi | 49.5% | 55.2% | 54 |
| Wyoming | 33.7% | 35.9% | 11 |