Baghdad, Iraq, was home to the first-known general hospital in 805 A.D. By the 900s, the city had five more. Some were open to all, whether male or female, civilian or military, child or adult, rich or poor, Muslim or non-Muslim.

Today in the U.S., there are 6,093 hospitals with 920,531 beds. And while the care can be exceptional, it's still better to make choices that keep you out of them.

When it comes to avoiding hospitalization for COVID-19 (always a good thing), there's interesting news about what works and what doesn't: 

• Ivermectin. The sometimes-touted but much-discounted medication originally intended to treat parasitic infections does not reduce your risk of hospitalization from COVID-19, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. When researchers looked at 1,300 people with COVID-19 who were given Ivermectin and others given a placebo, they found that 14.7% of patients in the Ivermectin group and 16.3% of patients in the placebo group either required hospitalization or visited an ER within 28 days due to worsening COVID-19 symptoms. Not a significant distinction. Overall, 81% of both groups checked into a hospital.

• Another study in the same journal shows that in a largely unvaccinated population, high-titer convalescent plasma given early after infection with COVID-19 reduces hospitalizations. According to researchers, "hospitalization occurred in 2.9% of patients who received convalescent plasma and in 6.3% of those who received control infusions."