Abstract
Community hospitals have been supported by the general public and by professionals as one means of increasing choice between local, low technology, care and high technology care at the district general hospital. However, there is no information on the impact of community hospitals on district general hospital use subsequent to NHS and community care reforms. Examination of routinely gathered activity data in the Bath Health District revealed that availability of community hospital beds was associated with reduced use of central inpatient services in the city of Bath. The reduction was most apparent for medical and geriatric beds. Decrease in the use of surgical beds was small. However, total inpatient bed use (including central and community hospital beds) was higher in the population with access to community hospital beds. We conclude that community hospitals offer one option for accessible health care and, as such merit systematic evaluation of costs and benefits. This study presents some evidence that savings could be achieved through improved efficiency.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Baker J. E., Goldacre M., Gray J. A. Community hospitals in Oxfordshire: their effect on the use of specialist inpatient services. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1986 Jun;40(2):117–120. doi: 10.1136/jech.40.2.117. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cavenagh A. J. Contribution of general practitioner hospitals in England and Wales. Br Med J. 1978 Jul 1;2(6129):34–36. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6129.34. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Goucke C. R. One practice's review of its use of a general practitioner hospital. J R Coll Gen Pract. 1980 Jul;30(216):401–404. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Humphreys R. C. Retrospective evaluation of role of a community hospital. Br Med J. 1973 Oct 27;4(5886 Suppl):19–19. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jones R. Do general practitioner hospitals extend primary care? Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1986 Jan 25;292(6515):243–244. doi: 10.1136/bmj.292.6515.243. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kernick D. P., Davies S. E. The community hospital: a three-year study. Br Med J. 1976 Nov 20;2(6046):1243–1245. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6046.1243. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kirkup B., Forster D. How will health needs be measured in districts? Implications of variations in hospital use. J Public Health Med. 1990 Feb;12(1):45–50. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubmed.a042505. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ramaiah S. Community hospitals in the new NHS. BMJ. 1994 Feb 19;308(6927):487–488. doi: 10.1136/bmj.308.6927.487. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sichel G. R., Hall D. J. A study of six general practitioner hospitals in Tunbridge Wells Health District. Health Trends. 1982 May;14(2):24–26. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Treasure R. A., Davies J. A. Contribution of a general practitioner hospital: a further study. BMJ. 1990 Mar 10;300(6725):644–646. doi: 10.1136/bmj.300.6725.644. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Watt I. S., Franks A. J., Sheldon T. A. Health and health care of rural populations in the UK: is it better or worse? J Epidemiol Community Health. 1994 Feb;48(1):16–21. doi: 10.1136/jech.48.1.16. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]