These days, an increasing number of medical practitioners are opening up their own hospitals, even though recent healthcare reform threatens to eventually put an end to privately owned hospital facilities. In the meantime, however, you certainly have the opportunity to seek medical attention from a physician-owned hospital. Before you decide to do this (or not to do this), however, be sure that you're making an informed decision by carefully assessing the advantages and disadvantages of physician-owned hospitals.

Benefits of Physician-Owned Hospitals

Firstly, understand that there are plenty of advantages to choosing a physician-owned hospital as a patient. For starters, physician-owned hospitals tend to have higher patient satisfaction rates than public hospitals. This may have something to do with the more personalized level of care that physician-owned facilities can provide. After all, these facilities tend to be smaller.

Furthermore, many patients who choose a physician-owned hospital enjoy the fact that they can use the facility as a "one-stop shop" for essentially all of their medical needs. For example, they can see their physician for a regular check-up, and if a follow-up appointment with a specialist becomes necessary, the physician can likely recommend a specialist that doesn't require the patient to leave the facility. In many ways, choosing a physician-owned hospital is often done out of sheer convenience.

Potential Drawbacks of Physician-Owned Hospitals

Of course, there are some concerns when it comes to physician-owned hospitals. One of the biggest objections people tend to have about these facilities is that—because the hospitals are owned by physicians—these physicians will act in their best interest and may over-treat their patients. For example, a medical condition that could easily be treated with an in-office prescription may instead be referred to a specialist for a more expensive treatment. 

The fear is that these kinds of practices would leave public hospitals dealing primarily with under-insured and uninsured patients. Furthermore, these other non-profit hospitals would end up missing out on performing more expensive treatment procedures on their patients. In many ways, then, physician-owned hospitals are seen as a potential threat or competition to public hospitals.

As you can see, there are both pros and potential cons of choosing a physician-owned hospital, such as Nueterra, for your medical treatment. At the end of the day, you'll want to weigh the pros and cons and use the results to determine which option is likely to be best for your medical needs in the long run.

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