Novel indicator for the assessment of hospital bed occupancy

In the past decades the bed occupancy of hospitals in Hungary has been calculated from the average of in-patient days and the number of beds during a given period of time. This is the only measure being currently looked at when evaluating the performance of hospitals and changing their bed capacity. The author outlines how limited is the use of this indicator and what other statistical indicators may characterize the occupancy of hospital beds. Since adjustment of capacity to patient needs becomes increasingly important, it is essential to find indicator(s) that can be easily applied in practice and can assist medical personal and funders who do not work with statistics. Author recommends the use of daily bed occupancy as a base for all these statistical indicators.