title: Measuring change in surgical practice.
abstract: We reviewed the work of a single general surgical firm over six years--about 11,500 patient episodes. Although the workload remained approximately constant, a severe reduction in the number of available beds was accompanied by a marked change towards shorter duration of stay. This affected particularly the elective cases. Previous authors, when trying to predict requirement of hospital beds, have accepted that duration of stay and number of beds available are independent variables; this was not what we observed.
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Surgery, University College London, Whittington Hospital.
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Wyllie
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wyllie
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Soo
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D001509:Bed Occupancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004630:Emergencies; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008131:London; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014600:Utilization Review; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data