In Medicare parlance, a short-stay hospital is a hospital that provides acute inpatient care. For Medicare program purposes, the short-stay hospital designation excludes many hospitals that specialize in a particular type of care, such as psychiatric, rehabilitation, children's, and long-term care hospitals. Also excluded from the short-stay hospital designation are certain small hospitals, with fewer than 25 beds, that serve rural areas and that meet other criteria for categorization as a "critical access hospital" (CAH). CAHs are eligible for certain financial benefits from the Medicare program that are not available to standard short-stay hospitals.

Short-stay hospitals are integral to the hospital infrastructure serving more than 62 million Americans having Medicare Part A insurance coverage.  Of the more than 6,200 hospitals participating in the Medicare program in the calendar year 2020, 56% were short-stay hospitals.  More significantly, short-stay hospitals accounted for more than 83% of the total hospital beds serving the needs of Medicare Part A enrollees.  

In the six-state Far West region of the U.S., as of the calendar year 2020, there were 455 short-stay hospitals, with just under 98,800 beds, participating in the Medicare program.  While the region was home to 15% of the nation's Medicare Part A enrollment, it had less than 13% of the Medicare program's short-stay hospital beds.  Here is a state-level look at Medicare short-stay hospital beds in the Far West region of the U.S.:

Medicare Short Stay Hospital Beds in the Far West

	# Part A Enrollees		# Hospitals	# Beds
Alaska	104,078		8	1,210
California	6,281,323		328	71,358
Hawaii	280,787		12	2,054
Nevada	546,759		23	6,240
Oregon	885,544		34	7,115
Washington	1,397,182		50	10,803
Region	9,495,673		455	98,780
National*	62,498,751		3,481	774,873
% of National	15.2%		13.1%	12.7%

* National totals include U.S. territories

Source:  CMS Program Statistics, Table: MDCR PROVIDERS 4. Medicare Providers:  Number of Medicare Certified Hospitals and Skilled Nursing Facilities, and Number of Beds, by State, Territories, Possessions, and Other, Calendar Year 2020