High‐dependency care: findings of a prospective needs assessment study

Aims to determine the bed requirement for a large district general hospital with a four‐bedded surgical high‐dependency unit (HDU). All admissions from 1 December 1997 to 28 February 1998 (aged over 15 years) were used in this study. Overall, the study showed that an estimated 1.6 per cent of adult, in‐patient admissions required HDU care (there were 10,949 admissions to the hospital during the study period). The bed occupancy for the surgical HDU during the study period was 90 per cent (319 actual bed days/356 potential bed days). The average length of stay was four days. The mean, median and modal daily bed requirement was six. The needs assessment study clearly demonstrated that it was essential for the Trust to provide more comprehensive care to a wider range of patients than was currently available in the hospital, particularly those with serious medical conditions, and recommended the provision of an eight‐bedded HDU.