Kernick D P, Davies S E
Br Med J. 1976 Nov 20;2(6046):1243-5. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6046.1243.
In a three-year period a community hospital of 40 beds discharged 2086 patients, their mean length of stay being 14.8 days. Some 68% of the patients treated were over 65, and 8.9% died in hospital. While the most common diagnosis on admission was disease of the respiratory tract, this does not indicate the actual cause of admission. For 142 patients from one practice this was acute illness in 44% of the cases, assessment in 20%, and a need for nursing care in 36%. If the community hospital had not been available about half these patients would have been admitted to the general hospital.
在三年时间里，一家拥有40张床位的社区医院共收治了2086名患者，他们的平均住院时间为14.8天。接受治疗的患者中约68%年龄超过65岁，8.9%在医院死亡。虽然入院时最常见的诊断是呼吸道疾病，但这并不表明入院的实际原因。对于来自一个医疗诊所的142名患者，44%的病例是急性疾病，20%是进行评估，36%是需要护理。如果没有社区医院，这些患者中约有一半会被收治到综合医院。
