Teaching vs. Nonteaching Hospitals: Which Are Better?

Teaching hospitals provide care for the most-complex patients and the urban underserved population, train the next generation of physicians, and advance biomedical research. But do they provide better and safer care than nonteaching hospitals?

Researchers compared performance on a variety of publicly reported metrics between U.S. nonteaching hospitals and minor teaching hospitals (self-reported teaching status) or major teaching hospitals (Council of Teaching Hospitals members; i.e., academic medical centers). Performance metrics included structural measures of quality (electronic medical record adoption, trauma center designation, procedural volume, 24-hour intensive care unit staffing), process and outcome measures of quality (30-day disea…