Hospital use in France and the United States

This report presents national statistics on hospital use from the U.S. National Hospital Discharge Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics and the national survey of hospitalization conducted by CREDES, Centre de Recherche d'Etude et de Documentation en Economie de la Santé, previously the Medical Economics Division of CREDOC. The use statistics compared between the two countries include rates and percent distributions of discharges and days of care and average lengths of stay. These statistics are shown by sex, age, diagnostic category, and other hospital and patient characteristics. The similarities and differences between the two countries in population characteristics, causes of death, health care systems, and hospital systems are also described.