Hospital statistics and hospital plans / by Florence Nightingale.

  • Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hospital statistics and hospital plans / by Florence Nightingale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    science there) bad wished that the subject should be thus intro¬ duced. It is proposed that one and the same form should be used for each statistical element. Seven such elements are required to enable us to tabulate the results of hospital experience ; they are as fol¬ low :— 1. Remaining in hospital on the first day of the year. 2. Admitted during the year. 3. Recovered or relieved during the year. 4. Discharged incurable, unrelieved, for irregularities, or at their own request. 5. Died during the year. 6. Remaining in hospital on the last day of the year. 7. Mean duration of cases in days and fractions of a day. These seven elements printed as separate headings and attached to copies of the same form, or written in, would furnish us with the means of tabulating every fact we require. Provision can be made for different sexes in one or two ways :—the column for each age may be subdivided for males and females ; or it might be more con¬ venient to have two sets of forms, one for each sex. Again, surgical cases and injuries may be included in the same form with medical cases ; or, in large hospitals, a separate set of forms might be devoted to surgical cases. For small hospitals, one set of seven forms might easily be made to contain the annual statistics of ages, sexes, and diseases (medical and surgical;) but for very large hospitals, possibly four sets might be required. The primary object of these Tables is to obtain an uniform record of facts from which to deduce statistical results, among which the following may be mentioned :— 1. The total sick population, i.e., the number of beds constantly occupied during the year by each disease for each age and sex. 2. The number of cases of each age, sex, and disease submitted to (medical or surgical) treatment during the year. 3. The average duration in days and parts of a day of each disease for each sex and age. 4. The mortality from each disease for each sex and age. 5. The annual proportion of recoveries to beds occupied and to cases treated for each age, sex, and disease. In reducing the data to give the annual results, either percen¬ tages or per thousands may be used. The number of beds constantly occupied may be obtained by taking the mean of the numbers remaining at the beginning and end of the year, if the hospital has been fully occupied ; or the mean of the numbers remaining at the beginning and end of each quarter; or oftener, if the hospital be irregularly occupied ; or the total number of days spent in hospital by all the cases during the year might be obtained ; and by dividing the sum by 365, the mean daily sick would be arrived at. [The total daily “diets” issued during the year divided by 365 would give the same result.]