How does Catholic hospital sponsorship affect services provided?

Catholic hospitals maintain a significant presence in delivering hospital s ervices in the United States, but little is known about the ways they diffe r from other ownership forms in similar market environments. This paper ana lyzes characteristics of Catholic other private nonprofit and investor-owne d hospitals in metropolitan areas of the United States to identify the exte nt to which Catholic hospitals differ from other ownership types on three d imensions of mission-driven identity-access, stigmatized and compassionate care services. Based on 1993 data, Catholic hospitals offered more compassi onate care services than other private nonprofit hospitals, and more compas sionate care and stigmatized services than investor-owned hospitals, contro lling for four market and six organizational characteristics. The results m ay help Catholic hospitals differentiate their services and help justify th eir tax-exempt status.