title: Hidden costs make planning critical for trauma centers.
abstract: Hospitals seek trauma center designation to enhance prestige, improve market share, increase financial return, enhance their teaching function, and support their mission. Unfortunately, for most hospitals, trauma centers create significant increases in capital and operating costs. The best way to determine the direct financial effect of trauma center designation is to focus on the additional patients who will be treated at the hospital and the associated costs and revenue.
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004465:Economic Competition; D005376:Financial Management; D005377:Financial Management, Hospital; D006752:Hospital Planning / Q000191:economics*; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States