A public facility (hospital) owned and operated on a nonprofit basis.
A hospital that is owned or operated by a religious organization or community association to provide healthcare facilities on a nonprofit basis. Voluntary hospitals in the US evolved from a sense of obligation by wealthy public-spirited citizens to provide better health care for the indigent sick persons in big cities. In recent years the role of voluntary hospitals has changed from one of caring primarily for charity patients to one of serving all members of a community. At the same time, the practice of charging higher fees to patients able to afford them in order to compensate for the expense of caring for charity patients has generally been eliminated because of the availability of government funds and refusal of insurance companies to reimburse policy holders charged the higher fees.