[Utilization of hospitals and general practitioners--is there a connection?]

In the County of Ringkøbing, population based rates were calculated for each individual community of the utilization of services in general practice and in hospitals. These were calculated on the basis of the administrative data available from the Danish National Patient Register at communal level and the County Health Insurance Register. No systematic connection could be observed between the utilization, as expressed by the population based rates, in the two sectors. On the other hand, systematic differences were observed between the geographical regions around the individual hospitals. A few communities are remarkable on account of their particularly great pattern of utilization. More qualitative and intensive studies are necessary to investigate these further.