[Minimum required number of anesthetists for general hospitals (41-1300 beds) in Japan--analysis of questionnaire, 1992].
BACKGROUND
We have elucidated the deficit of anesthetists in general hospitals excluding university hospitals by assessing the results of questionnaires from 204 institutions in Japan.


METHODS
Answers to the questionnaire were computed in average, maximum, and minimum values, using MS-Excel soft ware for statistical analysis.


RESULTS
The 204 hospitals were classified into 4 groups; G-1(46)-more than 640 beds, G-2(53)-more than 500 beds, G-3(53)-more than 360 beds, and G-4(52)-less than 359 beds, respectively (parenthesis indicate hospital numbers). The number of cases of anesthesia performed by anesthesiologists were 2055(G-1), 1516(G-2), 1177(G-3) and 959(G-4), respectively. The number of anesthetists per operating table were as follows; 0.62(G-1), 0.62(G-2), 0.58(G-3) and 0.74(G-4), but remarkably low compared to the number of operating theater nurses: 5.49(G-1), 2.96(G-2), 2.82(G-3) and 3.07(G-4). Moreover, the number of emergency cases were as follows; 235(G-1), 187(G-2), 134(G-3) and 125(G-4), respectively. In prolonged surgery over 6 hours, patients were anesthetized with an exchange system or two anesthetists system in 74% of the institutions in G-1. Also, 28-50% of anesthetists in the 4 groups were concerned with intensive care medicine and 0.94-1.54 anesthetists worked in pain clinics with combined operation-theater tasks 1.37-2.49 days per week. In G-1-G-4 institutions, we found that anesthesia cases per year were equivalent to 5 times their bed numbers.


CONCLUSIONS
We concluded that the number of anesthetists should be at least 50% of that of operation-theater nurses. Without increasing anesthesiologists, we cannot expect sophisticated medical care in the 21st century.
Yoshimura
N
N
Japan Society of Anesthesiology, Committee on Manpower.
Asayama
K
K
Araki
Y
Y
Okuda
T
T
Tsushima
M
M
Yanagawa
T
T
D000776:Anesthesiology; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000078329:Workforce