抄録
This paper compares the treatment outcomes of the three major acute care hospitals in
Okitama secondary medical care zone of Yamagata prefecture. At present, each prefecture is
adjusting the supply of hospital beds so that the supply plans meet the estimated demand of
each region in 2025, basically reflecting changes in demography. At the national level, currently
there are too many acute care beds and too few convalescence (recovery) care beds
compared to the estimates. Such qualitative and quantitative shift in each region is one of
the most challenging issues facing regional hospitals. To evaluate the current situation of the
regional acute care, this paper compares among the three hospitals mortality rates, length of
hospital stays, Barthel Index (BI) of activities of daily living (ADL) at discharge, and changes
of BI per day of hospitalization. Specifically, statistical differences in hospital acute care
in heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke, pneumonia, and femoral fracture are discussed.
Though there was no statistical difference in mortality rate across the three hospitalsin
the region, we observed several differences in length of hospital stay and ADL at discharge.
The results suggest the difficulty in consistently achieving the efficient length of
hospital stays on one hand and ensuring the effective functional recovery of patients on the
other hand. Furthermore, we point out some inadequate reports of personal data when comparing
treatment outcomes, which lead to some biased and unclear measurements for regional
hospital performances.
https://ror.org/027mg2511 
