Statistical presentation

Data description

The statistics cover admissions to, outpatient treatments at and emergency room visits to public somatic hospital wards within one calendar year. The statistics are based on the National Patient Register from Danish Health Data Authority combined with a number of background details from other registers. The statistics show e.g. how the use of hospitals varies with a range of sociodemographic factors.

The transition to the new National Patient Register (LPR3) entails a reconstruction of the Hospital Utilization Statistics, hence, exceptionally, figures for several calendar years will be published at once; 2019-2020-2021-2022.

Until 2019, somatic admissions and outpatient treatments at private hospitals and corresponding contact with private as well as public psychiatric hospitals were not included.

Until 2008 the Hospitalisation statistics included background information from The Cohesive Social Statistics. After the termination of the Cohesive Social Statistics, Statistics Denmark is considering whether other background variables regarding income should be included in future Hospitalisation Statistics.

In connection with the publication of 2012, tables in the statistics bank have been extended and rearranged, which included integration with the statistics for outpatient treatments. Changes have been made in the delimitation of population in some of the tables with standardised indexes and, for the preceding years (2006-2008), very small changes have been made regarding municipal information.

In connection with the publication of 2014, the delimitation of outpatient treatments and emergency room visits has been changed, and this constitutes a break of data as the former categorization of emergency room patients has been discontinued in the National Patient Register. Starting from 2014, the scope for outpatient treatments has been delimited by patient type equal to outpatient and type of hospitalisation equal to planned. Starting from 2014, the delimitation of emergency room patients has been defined by patient type equal to outpatient and type of hospitalisation equal to emergency.

From 2019, LPR3 was implemented, which is contact-based and where the number of admissions is calculated in output data rather than being defined in input data as previously

Classification system

The following classifications are applied in connection with publication of Hospitalization statistics:

• Diagnosis (the time-dominant main diagnosis during the hospitalization). Diagnoses are grouped according to the International Classifications of Diseases ICD - on aggregated 23 and 99 groups (the S list) from WHO. More on classification of diseases available on The SKS browser and the National Health Agency. In 2023, 2 new tables (respectively indl001 and ambu001) have been added for the years 2019-2022. These tables show data on 19 main diagnostic categories. The 19 main categories largely reflect the overall ICD10 main chapters or main diagnosis groupings seen at the Danish Health Data Agency The SKS browser and who.int at https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/XIX. The individual admission or individual outpatient visit is assigned a time-dominant ICD10 diagnosis code for the hospital stay, after which the dominant action diagnosis codes are divided into these 19 overall main diagnosis groups
• Admissions (emergency, planned)
• Out-patient treatment (emergency, planned)
• Geography (municipalities and regions)
• Public or private hospital
• Hospital service type (somatics - psychiatry - both parts). The hospital stays can be categorized according to somatics, psychiatry or both (i.e. hospital stays where there has been physical attendance in both somatic and psychiatric hospital services)
• Family type (children living at home; singles without children living at home; singles with children living at home; couples without children living at home; couples with children living at home)
• Ancestry (persons of Danish origin; immigrants; descendants).

Sector coverage

Public and private somatic and psychiatric hospital wards.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Admission: Admission: Terminated admission to public somatic hospitals where the patient type is in-patient as opposed to outpatient (or emergency room patient – until 2014).

Inpatient: In-patient: Persons who have been admitted to hospital once or more during the year.

Beddays: Number of bed days: Number of bed days in connection with admissions.

Outpatient treatment: Outpatient treatment: An outpatient treatment is carried out at the hospital in connection with a visit to an outpatient clinic or a ward. In the register, patient type is stated as outpatient when the patient type is not in-patient (or emergency room patient – until 2014).

Outpatient: Outpatient: Persons who have received outpatient treatment once or more during the year.

Emergency room visit: Emergency room visit: Terminated admission to public somatic emergency room.

Patient in emergency room: Emergency room patient: Persons who have visited an emergency room or emergency clinic once or more during the year.

Index (standardization): Index (in connection with standardisation): Index based on calculations standardised for sex and age enabling comparison across various groups of e.g. education, income, socio-economic background, etc. An index above 100 indicates more frequent treatment than average, whereas an index below 100 indicates less frequent treatment than average. The indexes are not comparable between men and women, nor are they meant for analysis of the development over time. In groups with few subjects in particular, the index can develop dramatically from one year to the next since only small changes can affect the result.

Statistical unit

Persons.

Statistical population

Physical attendance contacts (in the form of admissions or outpatient visits) at public and/or private somatic and psychiatric wards.

Reference area

Denmark

Time coverage

2019 -

Base period

Not relevant for these statistics.

Unit of measure

Number (of admissions or out-patient treatments or number of people using hospital services).

Reference period

The reference time is the calendar year in which the admission to hospital or the out-patient treatment took place.

Frequency of dissemination

Annually.

Legal acts and other agreements

Section 6 of the act on Statistics Denmark, cf. consolidating act no. 610 of 30 May 2008. There is no EU regulation concerning the Hospital Utilization Statistics.

Cost and burden

The statistics are based on administrative registers. There is therefore no direct reporting burden in connection with the calculation of these statistics.

Comment

Further information is available at: Statistics Denmark. The previous 52 tables in the area (until and including 2018) have been supplemented with new tables from 2019 onwards; 3 tables on the number of admissions, 3 tables on the number of outpatient treatments, 4 tables on the number of hospitalised patients and i.e. sociodemographic factors and 4 tables on number of outpatients and sociodemographic factors.