Table 1.

Results from selected recent European studies of the inappropriateness of hospital utilisation

						% Inappropriate admissions	% Inappropriate days of stay
First author	Year of publication	Country	Specialty or criteria	Measure used*
Smith3	1997	United Kingdom	Emergency medicine	AEP		6	45
Apolone4	1997	Italy	Internal medicine, neurology, cardiology, pulmonary disease, gynaecology, general surgery	Modified AEP		27	40
Coast1	1996	United Kingdom (rural)	General medicine, care of elderly people	ISD-A		22 (19.7% of emergency admissions)†	54
Coast2	1995	United Kingdom (urban)	General medicine, care of elderly people	ISD-A		24 (19.1% of emergency admissions)†	61
Hayes5	1995	Ireland	People aged 65+ years, admitted through accident and emergency or as outpatients	AEP		N/A	29
Victor6	1994	United Kingdom	All, excluding psychiatry, obstetrics	OBSI		<1	N/A
Victor7	1994	United Kingdom	All, excluding psychiatry, obstetrics	OBSI		N/A	14.6

^*AEP=appropriateness evaluation protocol; ISD-A=intensity-severity-discharge with adult criteria; OBSI=Oxford bed study instrument. 

^†Proportions reduced further after review by general practitioners and consultant physicians of appropriate alternatives. See original studies^{.1 2}