Table 1.

Hospital Characteristics at Baseline.^*

Characteristic	Control Hospitals (N = 1986)	Acquired Hospitals (N = 246)	Difference (95% CI)
Mean no. of beds	238	233	5.2 (−21.7 to 32.0)
Teaching institution (%)†	11.4	11.8	−0.4 (−4.6 to 3.9)‡
For profit (%)	15.8	13.4	2.4 (−2.4 to 7.2)‡
Public (%)	23.2	11.4	11.8 (6.4 to 17.3)‡
Urban (%)§	70.6	78.5	−7.8 (−13.8 to −1.8)‡
Mean no. of Medicare admissions¶	3201	2989	212 (−163 to 587)

^*Hospital characteristics were assessed in 2008, except for urban location (assessed in 2011, when it first became available in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS] Provider of Services data). CI denotes confidence interval.

^†Data are based on CMS Provider of Services data categorizing hospitals as having a teaching mission if they had a major affiliation with a medical school.

^‡The difference is in percentage points.

^§Data are based on CMS Provider of Services data characterizing the county of the hospital as urban or rural.

^¶Shown are total traditional Medicare admissions computed from Medicare claims data. See the Supplementary Appendix for discussion of changes in hospital admissions over time.