Hospitals serve state's communities

The report shows that hospitals serve as a source for health information, civic leadership and strong community support through contributions of financial and human resources.

“Besides providing care to the sick and injured, Missouri’s hospitals also serve their communities by providing important financial contributions and volunteer labor,” said MHA President Marc D. Smith, in a news release.

“Nearly 130,000 jobs in Missouri are provided by its hospitals and health systems — more than in any other private employment sector.”

Missouri’s diversity

The state’s hospitals also are diverse, according to the report.

They range from small, rural providers to large teaching and referral centers in major metropolitan areas, from publicly-owned and operated to privately owned, and from not-for-profit community hospitals to investor owned.

However, when it comes to benefiting the community, all hospitals share certain responsibilities, such as the provision of charity care.

Hospitals participating in this voluntary report submitted data from their 2004 fiscal year on eight common community benefit elements:

• Uncompensated care costs: charity care and bad debt

• Unpaid costs of Medicare program beneficiaries

• Unpaid costs of Medicaid program beneficiaries

• Free medical services clinics

• Health professions education costs

• Financial contributions

• Taxes paid

For the reporting period, the total dollar amount of benefits provided by Missouri’s hospitals was $1.8 billion in these categories.

The Web-based community benefit report is the second by Missouri Hospital Association to be featured at

www.focusonhospitals.com. Additional information about the report and about the participating hospitals is available on the Web site.

The Missouri Hospital Association is a Jefferson City-based not-for-profit association that represents 141 Missouri hospitals.