# Are private rooms the norm for hospitals now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 7, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753 "2025-10-07T19:33:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/61 "2025-10-12T19:02:15Z")
Thanks. That’s probably the article we saw. One of those easy and cheap to implement ideas that will prevent lots of falls. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/62 "2025-10-13T01:26:00Z")
> [@LivingGhost371](#): > > Not a hospital worker but I work in health insurance so have an idea of the state of the industry. > > Yes, **every hospital for acute medical care built in the 90s or later will have all private rooms. That’s the new standard for patient care as well as patient expectations.** Besides the obvious advantages for infection control, increasingly only the sickest of the sick patients are hospitalized inpatient- my neices daughter had her appendix removed and that was done outpatient, as opposed to a high school classmate of mine that was in there multiple days back around 1990. > > If you get hit by a bus you’re not going to think about the room type hospitals have, but if you’re a choice patient needing high profit care like elective spine surgery, you are. I recall a consult with a spine surgeon I asked what hospital he used and he said “——–, I know what you’re thinking, they don’t have private rooms there. But don’t worry unless there’s a complication you won’t be admitted overnight”. From sharing bedrooms becoming rare to the disappearance of communual showers, society is just exepecting and demanding more privacy. > > **Hospitals generally prefer to just raze their old building and build a brand new one with private rooms** rather than just removing a bed due to a private room not being as big as a semi-private, doing so messing up the ratio of nursing stations and whatnot, and the general wear and tear and ineffeciency issues with any hospital that’s old enough to have shared rooms. A lot of times they like to even find a brand new site, they can leave the entire old hospital operations until moving day rather than try to demolish and rebuild on an operating campus. > > Insurance wise they submit a specific code on the claim that means “semi-private room not available”. Our system is smart enough to automatically adjudicate these without applying a penalty for a private room. Responding to the two points bolded: I’ve visited an elderly relative many times over the past few months at two hospitals near me. The only time she had a single room was for two nights when she needed ICU care and monitoring. For the rest of the time (around 5 weeks, over a period of several months) she never had a single room. From what you say, that must be because these 2 hospitals were built in the 1950s or even earlier. And they’re both in crowded areas, in older suburbs of NYC, with no room to tear down the hospital or build a new one nearby. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2025, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/63 "2025-10-16T12:40:06Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > > > None of the hospitals I ever worked at used method of payment as a way of determining what kind of treatment the patient got, and that included a private vs. shared room. > > Are you sure ? Because my insurance only pays the semi-private room rate unless a private room is medically necessary. I have had private rooms at all my overnight admissions to a hospital, but my insurance only reimbursed at the semi-private rate even when there were zero semi-private rooms in the entire building. I had to pay the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/64 "2025-10-16T13:19:41Z")
If the hospital building had only private rooms, were there other buildings in the hospital with semi-private rooms? Because otherwise, if the hospital had only private rooms, how did they even have a published semi-private room rate? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/65 "2025-10-16T16:18:45Z")
No, the hospital did not have any non-private rooms. The _insurance company_ made that determination, somehow figuring out a semi-private rate for a hospital with only private rooms. I don’t think the average American quite understands the way the medical insurance companies set prices. It’s a mysterious black box where they ask you to “shop around” even when you’re unconscious and/or dying, where no one can tell you how much something costs, that which was approved before the fact can be disapproved after the fact, and much is presented as _fait accompli._ ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/66 "2025-10-17T19:59:42Z")
When you see a 10:1 ratio between the medical bill and the insurance reimbursement, you know that there is no real market price. Blood work is a common and classic case. The bill says $500, the insurance says $50. It’s not my money, so I have no reason to care. The geometric mean of the two prices seems like it would be a reasonable value. sqrt ( 50 \* 500) = 158 ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/67 "2025-10-17T20:48:10Z")
Ten-to-one? My labs were $11.20, the original bill was over $400. When my doctor was ordering them, he had no idea what they would cost. I would need to apply in writing for an estimate. And they would reply weeks, maybe months later. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/68 "2025-10-17T20:53:06Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > Ten-to-one? Give or take, mostly give. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/69 "2025-10-17T21:10:43Z")
Sorry, my response was unnecessary and inappropriate in an FQ thread. I have indeed encountered many Explanation of Benefit statements where the ratio is as low as 4:1. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan\_myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@aruvqan\_myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan_myers)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2025, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/70 "2025-10-19T23:03:10Z")
Got dx with cancer in 2016, 2 different types actually, the first had me in hospital after being field dressed like a deer for 5 days, was in a semiprivate room. Just before that, while dealing with chemo I effectively crapped and vomited my way into severe dehydration ending with a week in hospital while they decided I didn’t have C. diff in a single, but I did end up picking up a nice case of bronchitis _sigh_, then second type had me in for an overnight, not sure why, they yeeted a whoping servingspoonfull of tissue from my right breast [Bye Ethel. Of my 4 lumps, Ricky, Lucy and Fred remain] When I woke up in hospital [hubby came home to find me unresponsive] it was a week in a semiprivate room with senile lady who talked, screamed and moaned pretty much constantly. Honestly, I don’t mind semi, I can ignore pretty much anybody, earphones and youtube on my phone work quite well. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/71 "2025-10-21T22:40:28Z")
> [@aruvqan\_myers](#): > > Honestly, I don’t mind semi, I can ignore pretty much anybody, earphones and youtube on my phone work quite well. Modern technology would definitely have made my one night in a semi-private room far easier to tolerate. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/72 "2025-10-21T23:27:25Z")
I too have spent a bit of time in the hospital in the last couple of years. My first stay was in a private room, which was much better than my second stay, which had 4 beds. One of my roommates decided to record her ‘Facebook journey through her cancer’ at some ridiculous hour of the night. I hate sharing a room. I mean nobody feels their best when they’re ill or injured, so allowing for privacy is so much more dignified. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan\_myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@aruvqan\_myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan_myers)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/73 "2025-10-22T22:15:24Z")
Spent 7 years as a machinist, I can ignore loud or whiney sounds til the cows come home. My husband spent 20 years in the Navy, if he isn’t actively doing something he is sleeping =) HE can sleep through anything except total silence [on a sub that is a really BAD sound/lack of sound, tends to mean air recirculation has stopped for some reason] ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/74 "2025-10-23T01:01:46Z")
OTOH, blaring TVs are very hard to ignore if you’re not used to blaring TVs in your life. Loud obnoxious relatives of your roommate with screechy accents are also hard to ignore if you don’t have that garbage in your life either. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2025, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/75 "2025-10-23T01:06:57Z")
I can sleep through a lot of things, but I don’t think I could ever get used to dying people moaning in pain. And yes, the visitors on the other side of the curtain would be intolerable, even if they were well behaved. Thankfully, my mother had a private room to die in. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/76 "2025-10-23T01:15:01Z")
Yes, the moaning of the other patient is pretty tough too. I was trying to be genteel and skip over that part. But since you’ve brought it up … Yes, the wailing of the dying or demented or folks in serious pain is a major downer when it’s happening 5 feet away from your head as you’re trying to sleep and recover from whatever issue put you into a hospital. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753/77 "2025-10-26T23:49:14Z")
Completely subjective: I have had three major surgeries since 2018. The last one was 48 hours ago. First two at [Hospital for Special Surgery, NYC](https://www.hss.edu/). 48 hours ago was at [Mt. Sinai Hospital NYC](https://www.mountsinai.org/locations/mount-sinai). In all three cases I had one roommate. My wife noted yesterday morning that there was a setup in my room for a third bed. ( Wall jacks for O2, power, telemetry, etc. Curtain track on ceiling, Large hoist eyebolt along centerline of where the bed would go.) No clue how one sets policy. Suspect I could have paid a cash premium for a private room. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-private-rooms-the-norm-for-hospitals-now/1023753.md?page=3)