CHART 8
Number of hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants
in 2016 and percentage of beds per 100,000 lifted
(or added) since 2006
2016
Variation between 2006 and 2016
Germany
-3%
Hungary
-12%
-27%
Latvia
-3%
Austria
-8%
Czech Republic
-6%
Lithuania
-15%
France
-43%
Finland
-14%
Slovak Republic
Poland
+3%
-11%
Belgium
Luxembourg -15%
Estonia -14%
-16%
Switzerland
-45%
Ireland
Greece
-14%
The Netherlands
-24%
Slovenia
-6%
-21%
Italy
-31%
Denmark
-27%
United Kingdom
Portugal -2%
Spain -10%
-19%
Sweden
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
illness or injury, reduce the severity of an illness
or injury, or to protect against exacerbation and/
or complication of an illness or injury that could
threaten life or normal function. Curative care
includes all components of curative care of illness
(including both physical and mental/psychiatric
illnesses) or treatment of injury; diagnostic,
therapeutic and surgical procedures and obstetric
services. It excludes rehabilitative care, long-term
care and palliative care.
In 2016, the rates of acute care hospital
discharges in the European countries were quite
dissimilar, ranging from 10% in the Netherlands
and Italy to 24% in Austria and Denmark.
The average length of stay measures the total
number of occupied hospital bed-days, divided by
the total number of discharges. In 2016, the
average length of stay in acute care hospitals
ranged from 5 bed-days in the Netherlands and
Greece to 8 bed-days in Germany and
Luxembourg.
Between 2006 and 2016 the number of
inpatient discharges in acute care hospitals
remained on average stable; however, the
indicator varied consistently across the EU
member states. Major decreases were registered
in Latvia (–36%), Hungary (–25%) and Italy (–23%),
whereas major increases were registered in
Germany (+17%), Poland (+20%) and Switzerland
(+25%).
The link between the rate of admissions and
the length of stay can be a very sensitive issue for
hospitals, because it is commonly acknowledged
that too short a length of stay may increase the
risk of re-admissions, resulting in consequent
waste of resources not only for the hospital but
also for the patients and their carers. At the same
time, staying too long in a hospital may indicate
inappropriate settlements of patients, causing
also a waste of resources.
Chart 11 compares the rate of hospital
discharges and the average length of stay in acute
care hospitals in 2016. The last updated data
shows that the average European figures
corresponds to a mean rate of discharges by 16%
CHART 9
Beds in private owned hospitals as % of beds in all hospitals: Years 2002, 2008, 2016
2002
100
2008
2016
100
80
59
60
46
31
27
7
10
n.a.
0
22
16
20
9
HHE 2019 | hospitalhealthcare.com
6
6
6
5
3
2
1
31
32
32
35
38
40
1