OVERVIEW

This point datalayer shows the location of 82 acute care hospitals in Massachusetts. Acute care hospitals are those licensed under MGL Chapter 111, section 51 and which contain a majority of medical-surgical, pediatric, obstetric, and maternity beds, as defined by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). The features in this layer are based on database information provided to MassGIS from the DPH, Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS). The August 2009 update of this dataset limited the features to include only acute care hospitals (and removed other "specialty hospitals"); it replaces the layer formerly known as "Hospitals and Emergency Room Facilities."  The August 2009 update kept the ER status data and also added attributes to track the status of trauma centers and teaching hospitals. OEMS defines these attributes as follows:   - Emergency Rooms provide emergency service to those in need of immediate medical care in order to prevent loss of life or aggravation of physiological or psychological illness or injury.   - Trauma Center – a hospital verified by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) as a level 1, 2 or 3 adult trauma center, or a level 1 or 2 pediatric trauma center, as defined in the document ‘Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient: 1999’ by the Trauma Subcommittee of the American College of Surgeons and its successors; and meets applicable Department standards for designation, or a hospital that has applied for and is in the process of verification as specified in 130.851 and meets applicable Department standards for designation.   - Teaching Status – a hospital defined according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) definition of a major teaching hospital: at least 25 full time equivalent medical school residents per one hundred inpatient beds. Stored in ArcSDE, the layer is named HOSPITALS_PT. Please be aware that because of possible frequent updates, this layer should not be the primary source when seeking emergency care. In such cases patients should contact local hospitals or emergency facilities directly.

The MassDEP GIS Group developed the original dataset by geocoding a table of hospitals provided by the Massachusetts Division of Healthcare Finance & Policy. Locations were manually refined using digital ortho imagery, 1:25,000 USGS digital topographic imagery and Internet map sources (individual hospital sites, Yahoo.com, Mapquest.com). Attributes were verified and refined by DPH OEMS and MassGIS staff. Subsequent updates of this layer were based on database information from the MDPH OEMS. Point were added, moved, or deleted as necessary, and all were verified using the 2005 Color Ortho Imagery. The table HOSPITALS_PT_LDT was dropped as part of the August 2009 update.

The Acute Care Hospitals datalayer's point attribute table includes the following items:

HOSP_ID		Unique identifier assigned by DEP GIS for each hospital. Included for historical purposes.
NAME		Hospital name; may include hospital corporate system name and/or campus name
SHORTNAME		Hospital name often used by EMTs when locating ERs, usually the familiar campus name
ADDRESS		Hospital address (street number and name)
TOWN		City/Town in which the hospital is located according to MassGIS Political Boundary data
STATE		All coded "MA"
ZIPCODE		Hospital ZIP Code
ER_STATUS		"Y" for facilities licensed by the state to have an emergency room open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "N" for facilities that do not have 24-hour emergency rooms that accept ambulances.
TRAUMA		"Y" for hospitals verified as a trauma center (as defined above); "N" if not a trauma center
TEACHING		"Y" if the hospital is defined as a major teaching hospital (as defined above); "N" if not a teaching hospital
ORG_ID		Massachusetts Division of Healthcare Finance & Policy unique facility identifier
DPHNUMBER		Massachusetts Department of Public Health unique facility identifier
EMSREGION		Massachusetts Emergency Medical Services Region (see EMS Regions layer)

MassGIS maintains this datalayer. In June, 2003 the ER_STATUS attribute was added, two sites were added (Lahey Clinic-North in Peabody and Healthsouth NE Rehab Ctr in Arlington), and five sites were removed due to closure. Further refinement of the ER_STATUS field was completed in January, 2004.

Last Updated 8/19/2009
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