Utilization of short-stay hospitals summary of nonmedical statistics United States-1966

An estimated 28.8 million patients other than well newborn infants were discharged from short-stay hospitals in 1966. These patients received over 234 million days of inpatient care, or an average of 8.1 days per period of hospitalization. The rates of hospital utilization were 150 discharges and 1,221 inpatient days per 1,000 persons in the civilian, noninstitutional population. The utilization of short-stay hospitals varied by age, sex, and color of the patient and by size and type of ownership of the hospitals. There was also variation in the rates of utilization by geographic region. Data for 1966, the year in which the Federal program of hospital insurance for the aged (Medicare) became effective, are compared with data for 1965. These comparisons are shown for persons of all ages, for persons under 65, and for persons 65 years and over in the United States as a whole and in each of the four geographic regions. More detailed information for 1965 may be found in four previous reports in this series.