Table 1. Characteristics of the hospitals taking part in the pathway improvement project.

Hospital	Northern General & Royal Hallamshire	Victoria Hospital	St. Marien	CHU de Nîmes	MCA Alkmaar
Catchment area (population ×103)	2000	440	Not Reported	∼700	∼300
Number of beds	∼1100 (Northern General) and ∼850 (Royal Hallamshire) respectively	767	608*	1482	724
Approximate number of syncope patients seen per year	Not Reported	730 (of which 630 on an emergency basis†	Not Reported	N/A	∼700
Approximate annual turnover related to Patient Healthcare Provision	£717 million‡ (Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)	£256.1 million§ (Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)	Not separately reported.	€312.3 million**	€251 million††

*Source: http://www.klinikum-luenen.de.

^†Hospital Episode Statistics 2006/2007. Source: http://www.hesonline.nhs.uk/HES2/jsp/query_diag.jsp.

^‡Source: http://www.sth.nhs.uk/clientfiles/File/Final%20nhs%20report%20and%20accounts%202012.pdf.

^§Source: http://www.bfwhospitals.nhs.uk/departments/comms/docs/publications/annual_reports/Annual%20Report%202011_12.pdf.

** Source: http://www.chu-nimes.fr/docs/institutionnel/chiffres_cles_2011.pdf.

^††Source: http://www.mca.nl/Portals/6/Bijlagen/Over%20ons/Over%20MCA/Organisatie/Jaarverslag/jaardocument%20en%20jaarrekening%202011%20MCA.pdf.