Meanwhile, the number of hospitals in the United States has constantly decreased from its earlier 6,000 to 5,300. Nursing facilities offer the highest intensity level of long term care and are characterized primarily by the need for 24-hour nursing care.
Few persons enter a nursing facility as a matter of choice.
While hospitals are not part of the long term care continuum they complete the continuum of intensity of care, offering it at the most sophisticated and expensive level. All rights reserved.