ACUTE ADMISSIONS TO MEDICAL DEPARTMENTS - A COMPARISON BETWEEN AN URBAN AND A RURAL DISTRICT

To compare hospitalization into medical departments, acute admissions into a city hospital and into a district hospital were compared prospe ctively over a two-week period. Patients referred tp the city hospital were on average older, were more frequently Living alone and they had a greater amount of social care attendance in their homes. On the oth er hand, distribution of referral diagnoses, overall patient activity, occupational status and contact with relatives were similar in the tw o areas. Sub-acute or acute illness was considered the main cause of a dmission in both areas; the amount of admissions for social reasons wa s 13 percent to the city hospital versus 3 percent to the district hos pital. Relevant alternatives to hospitalization seemed to exist in 50 percent of the admissions to the city hospital versus only 3 percent t o the district hospital. Since patients admitted for social reasons bl ock hospital beds for a longer time period than those admitted for oth er reasons, these differences may to some extent explain why length of hospital stay is longer in city hospitals than in rural ones.