Indicators of mental hospital bed use

This study explored the use of survivorship curves as a type of indicator of lengths of hospital stay. Using data from the psychiatric services of a single Region, an attempt was made to determine the existence of a performance indicator with the advantages of fixed cohort analysis. By comparison with the proposed Department of Health indicators, this approach offers advantages in that it is less distorted by the presence in a District of large numbers of long-stay beds. However, although the findings show that patients are discharged more slowly from Districts with a large mental hospital and that a greater proportion of patients are still resident one year after admission, it is important to stress that measures of bed use of this type alone are not an indication of the quality of psychiatric services provided.