An analysis of patients discharged from the public wards of the Winnipeg General Hospital, November, 1956, with respect to multiple admissions and the factors which accompany them

Abstract

Observation has shown "that a major share of hospital admissions are referable to the repeaters." Because it has been found that repeaters contribute so heavily to the hospital population, it was felt that this was an aspect of public ward care in Winnipeg which would repay further study. The mounting costs of hospital treatment have concerned the patients and the medical profession, as well as private and public agencies providing hospital care. The presence of a group of patients requiring repeated care could seriously affect any plan. It was seen that a group such as this was a source of recurring expenditure and, therefore, any study which could clarify this problem would help to reduce the cost by better planning. As a result of interest in planning for hospital service, a survey of public ward patients was carried out on the public wards of the Winnipeg General Hospital during November, 1956. Patients discharged during the month were interviewed by the use of a prepared schedule. The schedule was designed to obtain a fairly broad socioeconomic picture of each patient... The aim of this project was to study the patients in the public wards of the hospital in the light of multiple admissions. The characteristics of the public ward patients were grouped for convenience into several areas: social, economic, and medical services. Within these areas, the patients were studied to learn if the frequency of admission could be related to any of the chosen items, for example, whether multiple admissions occurred more often with certain ages.