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Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States,

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Acute care beds in hospitals

Curative care (acute care) beds in hospitals (HP.1) are hospital beds that are available for curative care (HC.1 in the SHA classification excluding psychiatry).

Inclusion:
- Beds accommodating patients where the principal clinical intent is to do one or more of the following: manage labour (obstetric), cure non-mental illness or provide definitive treatment of injury, perform surgery, relieve symptoms of non-mental illness or injury (excluding palliative care), reduce severity of non-mental illness or injury, protect against exacerbation and/or complication of non-mental illness and/or injury which could threaten life or normal functions, perform diagnostic or therapeutic procedures

Exclusion:
- Beds allocated for other functions of care (such as psychiatric care, rehabilitation, long-term care and palliative care)
- Beds in mental health and substance abuse hospitals (HP.1.2)
- Beds for rehabilitation (HC.2)
- Beds for palliative care.

Sources and Methods

Australia

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008. Australian hospital statistics 2006-07. AIHW Cat. No. HSE 55. Canberra: AIHW (and previous issues). Also at www.aihw.gov.au.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. Private hospitals, Australia. Cat. No. 4390.0. Canberra: ABS.
* Note that apart from psychiatric care beds, further details on classification of beds within Australian hospitals are not readily available. Thus, ‘Acute Care Beds’ represents the total number of beds in acute care hospitals, minus psychiatric beds co-located in public and private acute hospitals. Along with acute (curative care) beds, long-term care beds and ‘other’ beds will also be included.
* Data until 1993 includes psychiatric beds co-located in general hospitals.
* Data until 1984 are for approved beds. Data from 1985 refers to available beds.
* For public and private hospitals, the number of beds includes beds which are immediately available to be used by admitted patients or residents if required. Surgical tables, recovery trolleys, delivery beds, cots for births without complications, emergency stretchers/beds not normally authorised or funded and beds designated for same-day non-in-patient care are excluded.
* Years reported are financial years 1 July to 31 June (e.g. 2006–07 is reported as 2006).

Austria

Federal Ministry of Health and Women (Bundesministerium für Gesundheit und Frauen): Austrian Hospital Statistics (Krankenanstaltenstatistik), as of 31 December.
* Acute care beds are beds in all acute care hospitals; these hospitals show an average length of stay of approx. 18 days and less, with very few exceptions.
* Hospitals of the armed forces and hospitals in prisons are included.
* There is a few number of palliative care beds included as they are available in acute care hospitals.

Belgium

Service Public Fédéral Santé publique, Sécurité de la chaîne alimentaire et Environnement (Federal Public Service of Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment). DG1, Data management.
* The data refers to the number of available beds the 1st of January.
* The following institutions are excluded: military hospitals and medical centres, prison health services, sanatoriums, accommodation for handicapped and old people's homes, and rest homes or homes offering medical care.
* 'Authorised beds' means beds which have been budgeted for and installed in compliance with official standards.
* Also excluded: cots for healthy infants in maternity wards; beds in examination rooms or polyclinics and emergency services, unless these beds are officially approved for hospitalisation service; labour beds in maternity wards and delivery rooms, as well as beds used for non-intensive neonatal care; 'day-hospital' beds not approved as such; wake-up beds; staff beds; and beds for members of the patients family.
* Bed indexes included are:
(B) treatment department “TBC”
(C) diagnosis and surgical treatment department
(D) diagnosis and medical treatment department
(E) paediatrics
(H) single hospitalisation,
(H*) mixed hospitalisation
(L) contagious diseases
(M) maternity
(NIC) intensive neonatal care and
(G) geriatrics in acute hospitals.
* Beds in wards which were temporarily closed (for a long period) are not counted.

Canada

Statistics Canada, Annual Return of Hospitals Database, 1976-1993/94.
* Approved beds in short-term units of hospitals with diagnosis and short-term treatment of in-patients (i.e. categorised as Level V Acute Care).
* When an entire ward is closed for a long period of time these approved beds are counted.
* Break in the series: No data is available for 1994. Starting in 1995, beds in acute care hospitals rather than beds in acute care units are shown.
Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canadian MIS Database, 1995/96-2006/07. The Annual Return of Hospitals Database was transferred from Statistics Canada to the Canadian Institute for Health Information in 1995/96 and was renamed the Canadian MIS Database.
* All beds and cribs in general hospitals and specialty hospitals (including pediatric hospitals). Includes beds in long-term care departments, psychiatric departments and rehabilitation departments of general hospitals. Starting in 1995, some provinces report beds staffed and in operation while other provinces report beds approved by the provincial health authorities.
* The decrease in acute care beds from 89,446 in 2005 to 87,435 in 2006 is largely explained by the reclassification of some hospitals in Newfoundland and British Columbia from acute care to long-term care.

Czech Republic

Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic. National Health Information System (survey on bed resources of health establishments and their exploitation).
* Acute care beds include beds in general hospitals; these hospitals generally treat acute and short-term cases. Also included are emergency beds and intensive care unit beds. Beds in psychiatric departments (wards), departments and workplaces of aftercare/nursing care and healthy neonates are excluded.
* The above bed counts do not include provisional beds, beds for accompanying persons and temporary beds (for less than 24 hours: day care beds, instrument beds such as dialysis beds, delivery beds).
* When an entire ward is closed for a long period of time these beds are not counted.
* Until 1999, data only covers establishments of the Health Sector. From 2000, data covers all sectors.

Denmark

National Board of Health, National Patient Register.
* Data is taken from the publication ‘Sygehusstatistik’.
* Before 1980 acute care hospital beds are defined as stays shorter than 30 days (<=30 days).
* The 2005 - 2007 figures have been estimated as the difference between total hospital beds and psychiatric care beds in hospitals.

Finland

National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
* The number of hospital beds includes data on all hospitals (specialised medical care and primary health care). The number of hospital beds is calculated on the basis of the number of care days during the year. Included are both publicly and privately financed units, with the private units accounting for a very small proportion.
- Total amount of hospital beds: the number of care days during the year is divided by 365/366.
- Long-term care beds in hospitals: the care days falling within the calendar year in periods of care with more than 90 days (alternatively: administrative decision on long-term made) are divided by 365/366.
- Acute: the number of beds in acute medical care is calculated by subtracting the number of long-term care beds from the total number of beds.

France

Ministère de la Santé, de la Jeunesse et des Sports - Direction de la Recherche, des Études, de l’Évaluation et des Statistiques (DREES). Statistique Annuelle des Établissements de santé publics et privés (SAE). See http://www.sae-diffusion.sante.gouv.fr/Collecte_2007/ and http://www.sante.gouv.fr/drees/seriestat/pdf/seriestat27.pdf.
* Acute care beds include only short-term care beds (activities of medicine, surgery and obstetrics).
* Beds for rehabilitation, palliative care and psychiatric care, day cases hospital beds, ambulatory surgery beds, and anaesthesia beds are not included.
* The series, as of December 31st of each year, have been collected in metropolitan France, in public and private health institutions, including facilities that deal only with one type of hospitalisation (part-time hospitalisation, hospitalisation at home, etc), and those that deal only with heavy equipment needing an authorisation or that have an authorisation for a care activity (medical assistance to procreation...). Are included as well penal establishments of health institutions, autonomous penal hospitals (Fresnes) and military sectors of health institutions, except autonomous military establishments.

Germany  

Federal Statistical Office, Hospital statistics - basic data, Fachserie 12, Reihe 6.1.1.
http://www.destatis.de or http://www.gbe-bund.de.
* Acute care beds comprise beds in general hospitals in all sectors (public, not-for-profit and private).
* Beds in mental hospitals, in prevention and rehabilitation homes and beds in long-term nursing care facilities are excluded. Cots for healthy infants, recovery trolleys, emergency stretchers and beds for palliative care are also not included.

Greece

General Secretariat of the National Statistical Service of Greece.

Hungary

Gyogyinfok (Health Care Information Center of Ministry of Health, Social and Family Affairs).
www.gyogyinfok.hu.
* Available acute care beds on December 31, excluding acute psychiatric care beds.
* In private sector, data only available on beds in hospitals financed by the National Health Insurance Fund.
* Break in private beds series: beds of funds and churches are included since 1994. There are very few private hospitals; the data covers practically the whole in-patient provider sector.

Iceland

* Data are not available.

Ireland
Department of Health and Children.
* From 1980 to 1996, figures refer to in-patient beds, excluding psychiatric beds, in publicly funded acute hospitals where the average length of stay is 18 days or less.  
* From 1997, figures refer to in-patient beds (excluding psychiatric beds) in HSE network hospitals (acute) only.
* Beds in private acute hospitals are not included.
* Data up to and including 2005 come from Department of Health and Children.
* From 2006, data source is the Health Service Executive.

Italy
    
Ministry of Health - Health Information System.
http://www.ministerosalute.it/servizio/sezSis.jsp?label=ssn.
* Coverage: All public, not for-profit and private hospitals are registered.
* Periodicity: yearly.
* Since 2000 data include all in-patient beds and exclude rehabilitative care beds, psychiatric care beds and long-term care beds. Until 1995, all in-patient beds except psychiatric care beds and long-term care beds. From 1996, all in-patient beds except rehabilitative care beds, non-acute psychiatric care beds and long-term care beds. It is not possible to calculate data before 1996 using the same criteria used for recent data.

Japan

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Survey of Medical Care Institutions"; "Hospital Reports".
* Acute care beds include infectious disease beds, general beds in hospitals and medical clinics and exclude psychiatric beds, tuberculosis beds, leprosy beds and long-term care beds.

Korea

Ministry of Health and Welfare, Yearbook of Health and Welfare Statistics.
* As of December 31.
* Excludes day care beds, emergency beds, surgical tables, recovery trolleys, delivery beds and cots for normal neonates.
* Acute care beds: Beds in all medical institutions (general hospitals, hospitals, dental hospitals oriental medicine hospitals, clinics, oriental medicine clinics, dispensaries and midwifery clinics), excluding psychiatric beds and tuberculosis beds.

Luxembourg

National Health Insurance (CNS).
* Data included in the budget.
* Note that on January 1st, 2009 the Union of Sickness Funds changed its denomination to « National Health Insurance ».
* The series has been rectified after the replacement of the main data source (budgeted beds have been collected by CNS, i.e. beds actually paid).
* Functional rehabilitation and readjustment beds are no longer included in this heading.
* It is not currently possible to remove palliative care beds, they are therefore included.
* A series complying with the OECD’s request which includes beds for curative care (HC.1) in general hospitals and specialised institutions (HP. 1.1 and HP. 1.3 from ICHA-HP terminology) is only available from 2004.

Mexico

Ministry of Health. Bulletin of Health Information and Statistics. National Health System, Vol. 1.
* For 1991, 1997 and 2000, the data of private providers was estimated using a linear interpolation method.

Netherlands

From 2002 onwards: Prismant survey on hospitals.
* Figures include cots for healthy infants and beds for same-day care.
Until 2001: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, Intramurale Gezondheidszorg, table 3 (several issues).
* Bed numbers exclude medical children’s homes, day care centres for young children under medical supervision, institutions for people with diminished sensory capacity, and so-called 'other institutions'.
* There are no private clinics in the Netherlands with beds for acute care; there is/are a (few) hospice(s) for terminal care. Figures are unknown.

New Zealand

* The Ministry of Health have investigated a potential data source for bed availability and occupancy rates from the ‘Indicators of DHB Capacity for Elective Services’ work stream. The nature of the data deviates from that requested by OECD in that the bed numbers, which are for those public hospitals in NZ providing publicly funded elective surgery and which have been collected for capacity modelling purposes, are for total available bed capacity for the facility (not resourced beds). The numbers include all bed spaces available, even if there is not a physical bed there at present, and includes bed spaces in decommissioned wards. At this stage, more validation work is necessary before this source can potentially be used for OECD bed availability purposes.

Norway

Statistics Norway.
Nordic Council and the Nordic Statistical Secretariat, Yearbook of Nordic Statistics (several issues).
Central Bureau of Statistics, Health Institutions (several issues).
* Beds in private rehabilitation institutions included in the statistics for the first time in 2000.
Somatic institutions:
- General hospitals
- Somatic specialised hospitals
- Specialised somatic nursing homes for special diseases
- Institutions for rehabilitation
- Minor somatic institutions
- Private rehabilitation institutions.

Poland

Central Statistical Office, Statistical Yearbook.
* From 2003 onwards, acute care beds comprise beds in general and specialised hospitals, including data on hospitals of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, which were not calculated before. Palliative wards and psychiatric wards are excluded.

Portugal

National Statistical Institute – Health Statistics (published annually) and unpublished estimates of the Ministry of Health, Planning Directorate.
* The data covers all hospitals (public, private) and also facilities for primary medical care.
* When an entire ward is closed for a long period of time these beds are not counted.
* Break in the series on acute care beds: figures from 1985 have been corrected in line with the original methodology, the fall in the number of beds between 1984 and 1985 being due to the exclusion of beds in military infirmaries.
* Series are not consistent with expenditure series.

Slovak Republic

National Health Information Center (NHIC).
* Since 2000, data is complemented by Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Transportation, Posts and Telecommunications, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defense data.
* Acute care beds = (number of beds in hospitals including psychiatry hospitals) minus (beds in psychiatric hospitals, departments for long-term treatment, post-care beds and beds in institutes of complex post-care and rehabilitation and long-term nursing care beds).

Spain

Before 1996:
* Data from Statistics on Health Establishments Providing Inpatient Care (several issues) released by the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs and the National Statistical Institute. http://www.ine.es/.
* Figures include available beds in acute care hospitals and acute care beds in hospital wards.
Since 1996:
* Statistics on Health Establishments Providing Inpatient Care, only provided by Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs. http://www.msc.es/estadEstudios/estadisticas/estHospiInternado/inforAnual/home.htm.

Sweden

Federation of Swedish County Councils and The National Board of Health and Welfare, Basårsstatistik (several issues).
* Until 2000. Note that beds are counted even when an entire ward is closed for a long period of time.
* 2001onwards the term average disposable bed is used.

Switzerland

Office Fédéral de la Statistique, Statistique des établissements de santé, 1997 and further years.
* Acute care beds: exclusion of beds in mental health, rehabilitative and geriatric hospitals and in nursing homes.
* Break in time series in 1997, due to the implementation of a new system of hospital statistics.

Turkey

General Directorate of Curative Services, Ministry of Health.
* Acute care beds are beds in all acute care hospitals: the average length of stay in these hospitals is 20 days or less.

United Kingdom                  

* Calculated by The Information Centre for Health and Social Care (http://www.ic.nhs.uk) for UK using data from:
England - NHS beds Department of Health (DH) (http://www.performance.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/data_requests/beds_open_overnight.htm);
Northern Ireland - the Department for Health, Social Services and Public Safety (http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/index/stats_research/stats-pubs/stats-hospital_community_statistics.htmstats-hospital_community_statistics#hospital);
Scotland - Information Services Division NHS Scotland (http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/information-and-statistics.jsp?pContentID=3426&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&);
Wales - Health Service for Wales (HSW) (http://www.statswales.wales.gov.uk/index.htm).
* Data covers non-private beds only.
* From 2000 “acute care” beds in England includes "long-term care" and "other" beds.
* Data is for financial years (1-April to 31-March). Data for e.g. financial year 2005/06 are presented as 2005.

United States

American Hospital Association (AHA), Hospital Statistics (several issues). Health Forum LLC, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association.
Coverage: AHA-registered and non-registered hospitals in the United States. U.S. hospitals located outside the United States are excluded.
Periodicity: Data collected annually.
Deviation from the definition: Data match OECD definition:
* Estimates are from short-term general hospitals and exclude inpatient care facilities such as psychiatric hospitals, wards, rehabilitation institutes, maternity homes, tuberculosis hospitals, leprosariums, and alcoholic treatment institutions.
* United States estimates do not include day-care beds. United States estimates refer to beds maintained (i.e. open and ready-to-receive patients).
* Any bed that is set up and staffed for use by in-patients is counted as a bed in a facility. For the AHA, the count is the average number of beds, cribs and paediatric bassinets during the entire reporting period.
* Short term general hospitals, as defined by the AHA are hospitals that may provide either non-specialised or specialised care, and the majority of their patients stay for fewer than 30 days.  
* United States estimates refer to beds maintained (i.e. open and ready-to-receive patients).
Deviation from the calculation method: Calculation methods match OECD definition.
Break in time series: No breaks in time series.

                                                                                   

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Source OECD HEALTH DATA 2009, November 09	Last update: 06/16/2009