Heightened demand will continue to underscore the importance of bed capacity for health systems nationwide.
There are about 917,000 staffed beds across U.S. hospitals. While more care and procedures are increasingly appropriate for outpatient settings, health systems also face intensified need for inpatient bed capacity. Inpatient utilization is forecasted to rise by 3% to 31 million annual discharges and inpatient days are expected to increase 9% to 170 million over the next decade, according to estimates from Sg2.
Below are the top 25 U.S. health systems in descending order of total acute-care hospital beds. Bed data is from the Compendium of U.S. Health Systems for 2023 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Find a listing of the largest health systems by hospitals here.
Editor's note: There are 26 systems listed below including Steward Health Care System. While this bed count is reflective of 2023, Steward's bed count took on a different shape in 2024 as it filed for bankruptcy and put its 31 hospitals up for sale. Steward is included below (No. 18) for 2023 but not counted toward the active 25 health systems listed.
- HCA Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.): 37,395
- CommonSpirit Health (Chicago): 16,679
- Ascension Health (St. Louis): 15,162
- Trinity Health (Livonia, Mich.): 14,914
- Tenet Healthcare (Dallas): 12,073
- Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.): 10,615
- Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.): 9,337
- Providence (Renton, Wash.): 9,256
- Community Health Systems (Franklin, Tenn.): 9,046
- AdventHealth (Altamonte Springs, Fla.): 8,809
- Prime Healthcare Services (Ontario, Calif.): 6,324
- Universal Health Services (Norristown, Pa.): 6,023
- UPMC (Pittsburgh): 5,972
- Lifepoint Health (Brentwood, Tenn.): 5,841
- Bon Secours Mercy Health (Cincinnati): 5,641
- Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.): 5,412
- Banner Health (Phoenix): 5,258
- Steward Health Care System (Dallas): 5,050
- Cleveland Clinic: 5,048
- Corewell Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.): 4,623
- Mercy (Chesterfield, Mo.): 4,363
- SSM Health (St. Louis): 4,017
- RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange, N.J.): 3,966
- Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City): 3,938
- Christus Health (Irving, Texas): 3,916
- Baylor Scott and White Health (Dallas): 3,840