Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Japanese

Patient Survey

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 7517)
Fax: 81-3-3595-1636

Purpose:This survey is a morbidity-related survey of patients in hospitals and clinics (hereafter referred to as medical institutions). The purpose of this survey is to obtain basic information for medical care administration.

Legal Basis:In accordance with the Statistics Law, Patient Survey was positioned as a government-designated survey (Designated Statistical Survey No. 66) in 1953.

Survey Scope:Patients surveyed were inpatients, outpatients and discharged patients receiving medical treatment in medical institutions throughout Japan which were selected by stratified sampling.

  Facilities Extraction Rate Patients (ten thousands)
Inpatients/
Outpatients
Discharged
Hospitals 6,594
(3,189)
Inpatients  7.3/10
(Outpatients  3.8/10)
212.8 92.5
Medical
clinics
5,806 6.5/100 27.7 1.1
Dental clinics 1,275 2/100 2.8  
Note : For dental clinics, the survey covered only outpatients.

Frequency and Period:

Frequency:Every three years

Period: The latest survey was conducted at each medical institution on one designated day from October 18 (Tue) to 21 (Fri), 2005.

At hospitals it was one day from October 18 (Tue) to 20 (Thu), 2005. At clinics, it was one day among October 18 (Tue), 19 (Wed) and 21 (Fri).

In 2005, the survey on Thursday at clinics was avoided because many clinics are closed.

Regarding discharged patients, the term of the survey was from September 1 to 30, 2005.

Survey Items:

Sex, date of birth, patient address, inpatient or outpatient, medical care required, etc.

Survey Method and Route:

Supervisory personnel in each medical institution filled out the survey form.

MHLW-----Prefecture-----Public health center-----Medical institutions
  |  |    
 City with public health center Special region

Tabulation:

The Statistics and Information Department of the Minister’s Secretariat is responsible for tabulation. In Patient Survey 2005, regarding some medical institutions data referred to Survey of Medical Institutions 2005.

Definitions:

(1) Estimated number of patients (per day): The estimated number of patients who received medical care at hospitals, medical clinics or dental clinics on the day of the survey.

(2) Estimated number of discharged patients (per month): The estimated number of patients discharged from hospitals and medical clinics during the survey period.

(3) Average length of stay for discharged patients: The average length of stay for patients discharged during the survey month.

(4) Rate of estimated patients: The estimated number of patients per 100,000 population(per day) as follows:

Rate of patients (per 100,000 population) = estimated number of patients /population (Population Census of Japan) × 100,000

(5) Estimated number of patients receiving medical treatment (estimated number by injury and disease)

The number of patients who are receiving medical treatment on the day of the survey.

This number includes patients who did not visit the medical institution on the day of the survey.

The used formula is shown below.

Estimated number of patients receiving medical treatment = inpatients + outpatients (first visit) + outpatients (following visit) × average interval since last visit × adjustment factor (6/7)

(6) Types of beds:

•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.

•Long-term care beds: 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.

Notes:

(1) The classification of diseases employed in this survey is the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) of the WHO. The ICD-10 has been used for this survey since 1996.

(2) Explanation of symbols

Quantity zero
Data not available or applicable
Category not applicable
Magnitude not zero, but less than half of the unit employed0 or 0.0

(3) Totals do not always equal the sum of the parts, because data are rounded off.

(4) The population used for the calculation of incidence was from “2005 Population Census of Japan” (total population: 127,767,994) of Statistics Bureau , Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

(5) The estimated number of patients by diseases is examined for the main diseases.

Schedule of Releases: 1 year after the survey ends
The latest results; December 2006 Released

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