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DETAILED information concerning hospital use is urgently needed at a time when construction and operation costs of hospitals continue to rise. How has the shift of population in metropolitan areas from the core cities to suburbia influenced hospital utilization. in medical teaching centers and institutions loca,ted in central areas? Why do, s,ome communities have higher rates of hospitalization than others? And, finally, are we prepared to develop criteria for determining reasonable or adequate levels of utilization? To begin to answer these and related questions, a survey of hospital use in Massachusetts in 1955 was compared with a similar study undertaken 10 years previously when hospital service areas were first drawn up for the Federal hospital survey and construction program. Data on hospital admissions, for the State's entire population residing in 351 cities and towns were gathered from the 163 general hospit,als caring for acutely ill patients in 1945 and from the 149 suc.h hospitals in 1955. All inpatient admissions with the exception of the newborn were counted. Data for the newborn were collected separately and were used to represent maternity admissions in these studies. The grouping of cities and towns into 68 hospital service areas located in 6 regions of the State greatly fa.cilitated the tabulation and analysis of hospital utilization data. Admissions to State and Federal military and veterans hospitals and to long-term or chronic institutions were not included in these studies. Admissions for out-of-State residents were segregated from those for persons residing in Massachusetts. The community residence of all but 220 patients was available in the 1945 study, and of all but 833 patients, or less than onetenth of 1 percent of all admissions, in the 1955 survey. Data concerning the community residence of maternity patients (as determined by the count of newborn) were also gathered for each of the 2 years. |
