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,
Long-term care beds in hospitals

Long-term care beds in hospitals (HP.1) are hospital beds accommodating patients requiring long-term care due to chronic impairments and a reduced degree of independence in activities of daily living.

Inclusion:
- Beds in long-term care departments of general hospitals (HP.1.1)
- Beds for long-term care in specialty (other than mental health and substance abuse) hospitals (HP.1.3)
- Beds for palliative care

Exclusion:
- Beds in mental health and substance abuse hospitals (HP.1.2)
- Beds for rehabilitation (HC.2).

Sources and Methods

Australia

* Data not available.

Austria

Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth (Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, Familie und Jugend).
* Long-term care beds are beds in all non-acute hospitals. The average length of stay in these hospitals is longer than 18 days. The figures comprise all beds in palliative centres, geriatric and acute geriatric centres and institutions for chronically ill patients.

Belgium

Federal Public Service – Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, DG1, Data management.
* The data refers to the number of available beds on the 1st of January.
* The following institutions are excluded: military hospitals and medical centres, prison health services, sanatoriums, accommodation for handicapped and old peoples' homes, and rest homes or homes offering medical care.
* Authorised beds are beds which have been budgeted for and installed in compliance with official standards.
* Since 1/3/94, hospitals for chronic diseases were closed. They were previously counted as hospitals with for long stay.
* Beds indexes included in the calculation are:
(G) Geriatrics only in geriatrics hospitals
(S4) Palliative care
(S5) chronic multi pathology
(S9) chronic affection and
(V) long-term affection treatment.
* In 1994, there is a decrease in long-term care beds in hospital due to the disappearance of Vbeds (long-term affection treatment).

Canada

Statistics Canada, Annual Return of Hospitals Database, until 1993/94.
* Beds in non-acute care units of hospitals.
Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canadian MIS Database, starting in 1995/96.
* Break in the series: No data is available for 1994. Starting in 1995, beds in long-term care hospitals, rather than beds in non-acute care units of all hospitals are shown. 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.
* The increase in long-term care beds from 7,815 in 2005 to 11,004 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).
* Long-term care beds encompass beds in departments and workplaces of after-care and nursing care in General hospitals (existing since 1995).
* Until 1999, data only covers establishments of the Health Sector. From 2000, data covers all sectors.

Denmark

* Data not available.

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 Etudes, de l’Evaluation et des Statistiques (DREES). Enquête EHPA, Statistique Annuelle des Etablissements de santé publics et privés (SAE). See http://www.sae-diffusion.sante.gouv.fr/Collecte_2007/ and http://www.sante.gouv.fr/drees/etude-resultat/er-pdf/er379.pdf.
* Total number of long-term care beds: all beds set up in all institutions and homes for old people (public housing, private housing for-profit or not, retirement homes linked to a hospital or private, for profit or not, public autonomous retirement homes, temporary housing residences, long-term care units).
* The series, as of December 31st of each year, have been collected in France as a whole.
* Since 2002, the number of LTC beds is decreasing. This is related to the implementation of the tarification reform regarding institutions for dependent elderly people. This reform envisages, in particular, the transformation of long-term care units and retirement homes linked to a hospital into institutions for dependent elderly people.

Germany

* Data not available.         

Greece

* Data not available.

Hungary

GYÓGYINFOK (Health Care Information Center of Ministry of Health, Social and Family Affairs). www.gyogyinfok.hu.
* Available long-term care hospital beds on December 31, including beds for long-term nursing, after care, chronic pulmonary care.

Iceland

Ministry of Health and Social Security database on the activities of the hospitals 1989-1995. In this database, beds are not registered but they are calculated from beddays and occupation rate.
* 1989-1995: Beds in nursing care and geriatric care at hospitals (calculated beds from database on the activities of the hospitals).
Statistics Iceland:  
* 1996-1999: Beds in nursing care and geriatric care beds in hospitals based on data from the Ministry of Health and Social security on authorised beds and data collected by Statistics Iceland (revised February 2007). Break in series 1996 (change from calculated beds to counting of beds).
* 2000 and onwards: Beds in nursing wards/care in hospitals (palliative care included). Here, beds in geriatric wards are excluded as they are not considered as long-term care. Break in series 2000 due to this. (Number of beds in geriatric wards, for information: year 2000: 142; 2001: 148; 2002: 1,112; 2003: 128; 2004: 148; 2005: 167; 2006: 161; 2007:157).

Ireland

Department of Health and Children.
* Data refer to beds in long-stay geriatric hospitals and district/community hospitals.

Italy

* Source: Ministry of Health - Health Information System.
http://www.ministerosalute.it/servizio/sezSis.jsp?label=ssn.
* Coverage: since 2000, data refers to all hospitals public (non-profit) and private, including private hospitals not accredited by National Health Service; except military hospitals.
* Beds in long-term care departments of general hospitals (HP.1.1).
* Periodicity: yearly.

Japan

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, “Survey of Medical Care Institutions", "Hospital Reports”, “Survey of Institutions and Establishments for Long-term Care.”
* Data relates to the number of long-term care beds in hospitals and clinics.

Korea

Ministry of Health and Welfare, Yearbook of Health and Welfare Statistics.
* As of December 31.

Luxembourg

Direction de la Santé, Division de la Médecine Curative; Union des Caisses de Maladie - UCM - data included in the budget.
* Following the introduction of the 'dependence insurance' (assurance dépendance) in 1998, long-term care beds do not depend on hospitals anymore.
* For the moment, it is not possible to identify palliative care beds.

Mexico

* Data not available.

Netherlands

* There are no beds allocated to LTC in hospitals in the Netherlands.

New Zealand

* Data not available.

Norway

* Data are not available separately but are included in "acute care beds".

Poland

Central Statistical Office, Statistical Yearbook.
* From 2003 onwards, long-term care beds in hospitals comprise beds in sanatorium hospitals and long-term wards in hospitals, including data from the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of the Interior and Administration.

Portugal

* Data not available.

Slovak Republic

National Health Information Center (NHIC).
* Since 2000, data has been provided by the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Transportation, Posts and Telecommunications, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defense data.
* Long-term care beds = number of beds in special health institutes + beds in hospital departments for long-term treatment, post-care beds and beds in institutes of complex post-care and rehabilitation and long term nursing care beds, including palliative care.
* The decrease in LTC beds in hospitals between 2004 and 2005 was in accordance with Act No 578/2004 on health care providers, and due to a change in a statistical finding on hospital beds and particularly within statistical finding in Acute beds in hospitals and Long-term care beds in hospitals.

Spain

Number of available beds in long-term care departments of general hospitals and beds in long-term care hospitals.
Before 1996:
* Data from Statistics on Health Establishments Providing In-patient Care (several issues) released by the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs and the National Statistical Institute. http://www.ine.es/.
Since 1996 :
* Statistics on Health Establishments Providing In-patient 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

* Data not available.

Turkey

General Directorate of Curative Services, Ministry of Health .

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 cover non-private beds only.
* From 2000 “acute care” beds in England includes "long-term care" and "other" beds.
* Data are for financial years (1-April to 31-March). Data for e.g. financial year 2005/06 are presented as 2005.
* Northern Ireland - Long-term care beds cover Palliative Medicine only. All Geriatric Medicine beds for Northern Ireland are included under Acute beds.

United States

American Hospital Association (AHA), AHA Annual Survey of Hospitals Database. Unpublished data. 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 matches OECD definition:
* Long-term care beds include all registered AHA facilities.
* Estimates for long-term care beds are from registered AHA hospitals and inpatient care facilities and include beds such as skilled nursing beds, intermediate care beds, acute long term care beds, and other long-term care beds in short-term hospitals as well as all beds in long-term care hospitals and facilities with the exception of psychiatric, alcohol and other chemical dependency, and rehabilitation facilities.
* United States estimates do not include day care beds. 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.

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