[Surgical activity in health care facilities]

Surgical activity for 144,000 beds in 1605 health care facilities in France in 1992 are reported. Both public (49%) and private (51%) hospital beds were studied. There were 2456 surgical theaters and a representative sample of 450,000 operations was examined. There were 4723 authorized beds which were not installed and 1168 non-authorized beds which were installed. The number of authorized beds per 10,000 inhabitants ranged from 16.1 (Picardie) to 33.2 (Corsica). Operations per 10,000 inhabitants ranged from 568 (Picardie) to 992 (Languedoc-Roussillon). The most frequent operations were adenoidectomies-amygdalectomies, cataract, appendectomy, herniacure, varicose veins of the lower limbs. Among the emergency operations, 91% of the operations were performed in 1156 permantly operating theaters. In these theaters, there was, on the average, one night operation every 4 nights. Regional variations in the number of beds demonstrate the need for improvement in organization. For operations, migratory flow and age differences cannot explain all the differences observed. Medical management varies greatly suggesting that more rigorous methodology and clinical training are needed.