Utilisation of Acute Care Hospital Beds by Levels of Care

An exploratory analysis of utilisation patterns of acute care hospitals in the Province of Alberta, Canada was carried out to develop a methodology for assessing bed utilisation profiles of acute care hospitals by levels of care. The utilisation of Alberta acute care hospital beds was measured in terms of primary, secondary and tertiary levels of hospital services. Patient origin—destination methodology was applied and a regionalisation perspective employed. The data used for this study were hospital separation abstracts compiled by all Alberta acute care hospitals during year 1986, this coincided with the most recent available Canadian census data. It was estimated that approximately 10–11% of Alberta beds were used for tertiary care as derived from population based utilisation rates and patient flow patterns. With respect to per capita measurement, the number of beds used per 1,000 residents was: 3.5 to 3.9 for primary, 1.2 to 1.6 for secondary, and about 0.6 for tertiary levels of care. Regression analysis revealed that the marginal cost per bed at each level was approximately 75–79, 87–88, and 201–209 thousand Canadian dollars per year in 1986 for primary, secondary and tertiary care respectively. The profiles thus estimated explained about 65% of per bed hospital cost variation.