Table 1 Characteristics of physician owned and non physician owned specialty hospitals

Mean number of Medicare admissions in 2003, sd

126 (122)

1,305 (1,146)

< .001

Mean number of major joint replacements in 2003, sd

64 (71)

678 (700)

< .001

Mean proportion of admissions in 2003 within MDC8, sd

0.86 (0.14)

0.80 (0.16)

.29

Mean number of hospital beds, (sd)

21 (17)*

73 (39)^†

< .001

Major teaching hospitals, %

0 (0)*

1 (14)^†

.11

Medical school affiliation, %

1 (6) *

3 (43)^†

.05

Number that are for-profit, %

17 (94)*

2 (28)^†

.001

Mean ratio of FTE nurses to hospital beds, sd

2.2 (.97)*

1.6 (.86)^†

.12