How many beds? Capacity implications of hospital care demand projections in the Irish hospital system, 2015‐2030

How many hospital beds?

For many years, average bed occupancy level has been the primary measure that has guided hospital bed capacity decisions at both policy and managerial levels. Even now, the common wisdom that there is an excess of beds nationally has been based on a federal target of 85% occupancy that was developed about 25 years ago. This paper examines data from New York state and uses queueing analysis to e...

The dwindling supply of empty beds: implications for hospital surge capacity.

The threat of mass-casualty disasters raises concern about the adequacy of hospitals' surge capacity. This paper measures surge capacity as the number of empty staffed beds per capita at the county level and compares it to a disaster-planning benchmark released by the federal government. The percentage of the U.S. population living in counties falling below the benchmark increased from 19 perce...

Factors influencing demand for hospital beds in English Primary Care Trusts

Up to the present, the required future number of hospital beds has been calculated under the assumption that changes in demography and length of stay are the major factors determining demand. It is recognised that a significant proportion of acute medical care could be moved into more community focussed models of care; however, there is no current method for estimating how many beds could be sa...

The Safety of Hospital Beds

Equity in distribution of hospital beds in Iran

Background and Aim: Equitable distribution of health system resources and hospital beds is crucial for an acceptable level of health for all the people of the country. The aim of this study was to examine the equity in distribution of hospital beds in Iran. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive and cross sectional study data were collected from Ministry of Health and Medical Education and ...