title: Burden of hospitalized pediatric morbidity and utilization of beds in a tertiary care hospital of kolkata, India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood morbidity consumes a substantial portion of health care resources in terms of hospital bed utilization, and overload in hospital ward remains a major concern in many countries, including India. A possible way to minimize the problem of scarcities of bed is to analyze the pattern of bed utilization by causes and plan services accordingly.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the burden of pediatric morbidity and utilization pattern of pediatric beds in a tertiary care hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis of pediatric inpatient's records was conducted over a period of 1 year from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2007.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 3983 total admitted cases, about one-third were infants, of which neonatal and post-neonatal age group constituted 45% and 55% of the cases, respectively. In terms of bed-day utilization, infants, 1-4 years and 5-11 years age group accounted for 35.10%, 32.58% and 32.32% of total days of admission, respectively. Utilization of pediatric beds by major causes of morbidity was respiratory tract infection (22.23%), convulsive disorder (12.68%), accident and poisoning (6.07%), diarrheal disease (4.97%) and chronic hemolytic anemia (4.42%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A minor change in admission policy through provision of day care unit for management of certain cases would allow efficient use of hospital beds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, R.G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Rabindra Nath
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: Prabha
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shrivastava
authors.forename: Dilip Kumar
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Indranil
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Saha
authors.forename: Aditya Prasad
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Sarkar
keywords: Hospitalized pediatric morbidity; acute respiratory infection; bed days utilization; diarrhea