Classification Detail

Hospitalization is defined as occurring when a patient is accommodated in a hospital for the duration of the treatment. Hospital day-care and home-based hospital treatment are included, as are hospices for terminally ill persons. This group covers the services of general and specialist hospitals, the services of medical centres, maternity centres, nursing homes and convalescent homes which chiefly provide in-patient services, the services of military base hospitals, the services of institutions serving old people in which medical monitoring is an essential component and the services of rehabilitation centres providing in-patient health care and rehabilitative therapy where the objective is to treat the patient rather than to provide long-term support. Hospitals are defined as institutions which offer in-patient care under direct supervision of qualified medical doctors. Medical centres, maternity centres, nursing homes and convalescent homes also provide in-patient care but their services are supervised and frequently delivered by staff of lower qualification than medical doctors. The group does not cover facilities such as military field hospitals (02.1), surgeries, clinics and dispensaries devoted exclusively to outpatient care (07.2), institutions for disabled persons and rehabilitation centres providing primarily long-term support (10.1.2), retirement homes for elderly persons (10.2.0). Neither does it cover payments to patients for loss of income due to hospitalization (10.1.1). Hospital services include medicaments, prostheses, medical appliances and equipment and other health-related products supplied to hospital patients. It also includes non-medical expenditure of hospitals on administration, non-medical staff, food and drink, accommodation (including staff accommodation), etc.