South Carolina's 67 acute-care hospital were the most profitable of any state's hospitals in 1994, according to the latest American Hospital Association data.
The South carolina facilities posted a 12.6% total profit margin on total net revenues of more than $3.8 billion.
The only other hospitals to post double-digit profit margins were those in Idaho and Nevada at 11.9% and 10.4%, respectively, according to the AHA.
Those and similar results from hospitals in many other states helped push the entire acute-care hospital industry to a record $13.8 billion in aggregate profits in 1994 (March 25, p. 2).
The following state-by-state hospital revenue and profit figures are extrapolated from the AHA's latest annual hospital statistics report. The AHA released the report, based on a survey of 5,229 acute-care hospitals, last month,
Overall, hospitals posted a 4.7% total profit margin on total net revenues of about $289.6 billion.
As the state-by-state figures reveal, hospitals in six out of 10 states posted profit margins higher than the aggregate margin for all hospitals. But below-average profits from big states such as California and New York dragged down the aggregate margin.
The 427 acute-care hospitals in California had a total profit margin of 3% in 1994, while New York's 229 hospitals generated only a 0.7% return on their revenues, the AHA data show.
Hospitals in just two locales, Rhose Island and the District of Columbia, lost money in 1994. Rhose Island hospitals had an aggregate loss of 0.3%, while hospitals in the district posted a 1.4% aggregate loss.
