Hospitalization

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Personal Finances and Welfare, Social Statistics
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Hospitalization 2023

The purpose of the Hospital Utilization Statistics is to shed light on the connection between social and demographic conditions and admissions or out-patient treatments, etc. in hospitals.

Statistical presentation

The statistics is an annual inventory of admissions to and out-patient treatments at public and private somatic and psychiatric hospital wards within one calendar year. The statistics show how hospital admissions varies with demographic and social factors, such as residence, sex, age and family etc.

Statistical processing

The register data received from the National Patient Register is linked with background data from Statistics Denmark and counts are made, e.g. number of admissions and number of out-patient treatments and patients at public and private somatic and psychiatric hospital departments during the calendar year.

Relevance

Public and private actors and the population can use these data on the population's hospital use for analyses, research, debate, etc. Value creation occurs by calculating specific diagnosis groups as well as by linking hospital use with socio-demographic factors, e.g. place of residence, family type and ancestry. This is achieved by linking National Patient Register data with register data on the population from Statistics Denmark.

Accuracy and reliability

The National Patient Register is validated by the Danish Health Data Agency and the accuracy of the register data must be considered to be high because the registration has a long tradition and a high priority for administrative purposes. Accordingly, the overall accuracy of the Hospital Utilization Statistics is high. However, the transition from LPR2 to LPR3 took place continuously and slightly staggered between the regions in February-March 2019, which is why reservations are made for missing LPR3 data for the beginning of 2019.

Timeliness and punctuality

Delay has occurred due to the transition to a new National Patient Register with a new register structure regarding data on admissions. Tables on number of hospital admissions (2019-2021) were published in 2022, and tables on out-patient treatments were published in 2023. In 2024, 8 additional tables were published on 2019-2022 data, and in January 2025, 14 tables on the basis of 2023 data were published. The punctuality is high.

Comparability

The statistics has been developed since 1990, but due to the new data structure in the National Patient Register there is a data breach between 2018 and 2019.

Eurostat and the OECD make comparable statistics in this field. There are a number of organizational and institutional conditions that we must keep in mind when comparing countries.

Accessibility and clarity

The statistics are released in the newsletter Nyt from Statistics Denmark (in Danish only) and the Statbank, Statbank tables on hospitalisation rates (https://www.dst.dk/en/Statistik/nyt/relateret?pid=580). Statistical Yearbook and Statistical Ten-Year Review contain selected sections about hospitalisation rates.