Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare


Survey of Medical Institutions

Responsible Agency /Contact:

Health Statistics Office, Statistics and Information Department, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Tel: 81-3-5253-1111 (ext 7520)

Fax: 81-3-3595-1636

Purpose:

To clarify the current number and distribution of medical institutions (hospitals and clinics as defined by the Medical Service Law), to perceive their clinical functions, and to gain basic grounds for health care policy making.

Background and Legal Basis:

This survey started in 1948 as the “Health care survey from the institution viewpoint”. In accordance with the Statistics Act, the Regulations for the Survey of Medical Institutions was established in 1953 and this survey was positioned as a government-designated survey (No. 65).

The survey was conducted every year until 1972. In 1973 the Regulations for the Survey of Medical Institutions was revised. Since 1975, the Static Survey of Medical Institutions has been conducted every three years to find out the current status of medical institutions in detail, and the Dynamic Survey of Medical Institutions based on applications and notifications from medical institutions has been conducted every month.

Until 1981 the “ Static Survey” had reported as of December 31. Since 1984, it has reported as of October 1.

Types of Survey:

(1)Static Survey of Medical Institutions (hereinafter referred to as Static Survey)
(2)Dynamic Survey of Medical Institutions (hereinafter referred to as Dynamic Survey)

Frequency and Period:

(1) Static Survey:

Frequency: Every three years (since 1975)

Period: As of October 1st

(2) Dynamic Survey:

Frequency: Monthly (since 1975)

Period: Every month (As of the notification of establishment, abolition etc.)

Survey Scope:

(1)Static Survey: All medical institutions that have been in practice as of October 1st
(2)Dynamic Survey: Medical institutions that have been established, abolished, suspended etc.

Medical institutions include clinics that specialize in home-visiting care and kaiho clinics of Okinawa prefecture, but then excluding midwifery homes, medical institutions for the elderly requiring long-term care, and public health centers.

Survey Items:

(1)Static Survey: Name of the medical institution, address, establishing organ, number of beds, clinical specialties, number of health care professionals and their working conditions, notification of emergency hospital or clinic, in-home services, machinery and equipment, surgery or operation, etc
(2)Dynamic Survey: Name of medical institutions, address, establishing organ, number of beds, clinical specialties, etc

Survey Methods and Route:

(1)Static Survey: The manager of the medical institutions calculates the numbers and enters the survey form.
MHLW ─ Prefectural government ─ Public health center ─ Medical institutions
  └─ Cities and wards with ─┘
public health center
 
(2)Dynamic Survey: the Governor or Mayor who places public health center fills out the survey form based on the application and notification of establishment, abolition, etc. of the medical institutions.
MHLW ─ Prefectural government - - - - - - - - - Hospital and Clinic Medical institutions
 

└─ Cities and wards with - - - - - - - - Clinic

public health center

 

Note: “ - - -“ (broken line) referred to reporting or notification under Medical Service Law

Definitions:

(1)Type of Medical Institution

Hospital: A place where medical doctors or dentists provide health care and dental care, with inpatient facilities for 20 or more patients

Medical Clinic: A place where medical doctors or dentists provide health care and dental care (excludes those providing only dental care), with no inpatient facilities or with inpatient facilities for 19 or less patients

Dental Clinic: A place where dentists provide dental care, with no inpatient facilities or with inpatient facilities for 19 or less patients

(2) Type of Hospital

Psychiatric Hospitals: Hospitals with only psychiatric beds

Tuberculosis Sanitaria: Hospitals with only tuberculosis beds

General Hospitals: Hospitals excluding those listed above (also excluding Infectious Disease Hospitals until 1998)

(3) Type of Bed

Psychiatric Beds: Beds for patients with mental health illness.

Infectious Diseases Beds: Beds for treatment of patients with Type I or Type II infectious disease or a new type of infectious diseases stipulated by the Law Concerning the Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Medical Care for Patients Suffering Infectious Diseases (Law No. 114, 1998).

Tuberculosis Beds: Beds for patients with tuberculosis.

Beds for Long-term care: Beds for patients who require long-term care.

General Beds: Beds other than Psychiatric beds, Infectious Diseases beds, Tuberculosis beds or Long-term care beds.

(4)Classification of Establishing Organ

National Government: Facilities established by the Government or an equivalent organization

Public Organization: Facilities established by the corporation based on the ministerial announcement which defined public organization according to Article 31 of the Civil Law

Social Insurance Bodies: Facilities established by social insurance related organizations

Nonprofit Corporations: Facilities established by non-profit corporations as stipulated in Article 34 of the Civil Law

Medical Juridical Persons: Facilities established by medical corporations as stipulated in Article 39 of the Medical Care Law

Juristic School Bodies: Facilities established by educational corporations as stipulated in Article 3 of the Private School Law

Companies: Facilities established by business corporations, under authorization of the prefectural governor (Article 7 of the Medical Care Law), for employees and their families

Other Corporations: Other organizations

Individuals: Facilities established by individuals and not by listed above

University Hospitals: Facilities established by Universities as stipulated in A School Education Act for educating medical or dental students

Notes:

Explanation of symbols

Quantity Zero -
Data not available or applicable
Category not applicable ·
Magnitude not zero, but less than 1 in the last digit 0.0

The totals are not always equal to the sum of the parts, because the numbers are rounded off,

The population used for the calculation of the incidence per 100,000 population is the “ Population Census” or “ Current Population Estimates ” (conducted as of October 1 by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. For the major cities and core cities which needed population estimates for the calculation, estimated by each city).

Schedule of Releases:

(1)Static Survey: 1 year after the survey ends
The latest results; November 2006 Released
(2)Dynamic Survey: Monthly Report; 2 months after the month's survey period
Annual; September of the next year

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