Biomedical subjects
P Gulbrandsen
Publications and source records attributed to P Gulbrandsen.
[Is short-stay treatment profitable?].
It is often said that the reimbursement from public insurance is too small to make it profitable for hospitals to perform day surgery and outpatient surgery. It is essential to make it clear whether one is referring to transferring a patient from inpatient stay to an outpatient situation of treatment or a patient who would alternatively not have been treated in hospital. In the first case outpatient treatment will be profitable for the hospital even if there is no specific reimbursement. If suitable patients are not transferred to the outpatient department, this must be because the hospital does not find the reimbursement profitable enough to compensate for problems connected with the organizational change. The second case represents an increase in the hospital's capacity and, strictly speaking, is quite different from a comparison of inpatient stays and outpatient treatment. To illustrate the method used to calculate the costs and benefits to the society from day surgery or outpatient treatment, we present key results from an examination of a short-stay unit at the county hospital of Ostfold, in Fredrikstad. Although this was not a pure day surgical unit (60 per cent of the patients remained until the next day), the results shed light on the economic aspects of pure day surgery as well. The most important effect of this unit was an increase in treatment capacity and a reduction in the time the patients spent waiting for treatment. We show that the unit was certainly profitable if patients were on sick leave for at least one percent of the months spent waiting.
The duration of acute respiratory tract infections in children.
In a rural district in Western Norway with 400 children under 16 years, we recorded all children with acute respiratory infections who attended their general practitioner during a period of four months. 90 cases were recorded, giving an incidence of 5.6% per month. Half of the patients contacted the doctor within four days from the initial symptom, every sixth waited more than two weeks. Their symptoms were monitored by the parents. Low fever, nasal discharge and cough were the most long-standing symptoms. After three weeks less than 50% of the patients were completely recovered. The children under one year of age recovered more quickly than the rest. No serious complications or sequelae were recorded.