Bale spent about two-and-a-half hours at the Medical Center of Aurora Tuesday, where he met with five people being treated there and two others brought in from another hospital. He also thanked medical staff and police officers who responded to the attack.
Carey Rottman, who was injured in Friday's shooting, posted two photos of himself with Bale on his Facebook page. Bale chatted with medical staff, shook hands and took photos with hospital employees. Staff members at sister hospital Swedish Medical Center who were attending a luncheon at the hospital even got to pose for pictures with the actor.
"It was good for the patients," Bill Voloch, interim president of the facility, told the Denver Post. "We hope it was therapeutic for them, and all the staff really appreciated him coming."
"He just said he wanted to come to thank all of us because he has been thinking about this. He knows the whole world has been thinking about this," said Janie Bowman-Hayes, assistant vice president of surgical services at Swedish Medical Center. "He took it upon himself to come and thank us."
Accompanied by his wife, the actor also stopped by a makeshift memorial to victims of the attack. As he walked among the 12 crosses erected for each of the slain victims, many people didn't realize who he was or chose to leave him alone.
An online campaign had urged Bale to visit survivors of the shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."
Bale previously issued a written statement saying: "Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them."
Members of the Denver Broncos also stopped by the hospital Tuesday to pay a visit to some of the survivors.
ABC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
