Hospitals decreased in number from 6,719 in 1930 to 6,437 in 1933 to 6,166 by 1938. In 1933 the country had a variety of hospitals offering different types of services:

Hospitals by type of service:

General 4,237

Nervous and mental 621

Tuberculosis 497

Maternity 134

Industrial 118

Convalescent 130

Isolation 71

Children's 58

Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat 56

Orthopedic 69

Hospital departments of institutions 343

The rate of patient occupancy in general hospitals was 59.9 percent. The average length of stay in a general hospital was 14 days in 1933, which decreased to 12.6 days by 1937. One American in fourteen became a hospital patient in 1933. Only one-third of all births were in hospitals in that same year.

Sources: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1935 (New York: New York World-Telegram, 1935): 278;

The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1940 (New York: New York World-Telegram, 1940): 326, 519.