Incidence of short-term community hospital stays and clinical profiles of patients: the Finnish Community Hospital Cohort Study

A community hospital system covers the entire population of Finland. Yet there is little research on the system beyond routine statistics. More knowledge is needed on the incidence of hospital stays and patient profiles. We investigated the incidence of short-term community hospital stays and the features of care and patients. Prospective observational study. Community hospitals in the catchment area of Kuopio University Hospital in Finland. Short-term (up to one month) community hospital stays of adult residents. The outcome was the incidence rate of short-term community hospital stays according to age, sex and the first underlying diagnoses. A number of 13,482 short-term community hospital stays were analyzed. The patients' mean age was 77 years. The incidence rate of short-term hospital stays was 28.6 stays per 1000 person-years among residents aged