The hospital witnessed an uptick in the number of admitted patients.
Last year saw a significant jump in hospital inpatients, totaling approximately 17.6 million, up by around 390,000 from the year before. This increase equated to a 2.4% rise, as stated by the Federal Statistical Office on Friday. However, this figure still fell short of the pre-COVID level of 19.4 million in 2019, marking a 12.1% decrease.
The Wiesbaden statisticians reported that in 2023, there were approximately 1,874 hospitals in Germany, housing about 476,924 beds. These beds included 26,158 for intensive care and 7,800 for intermediate care. Regarding bed availability, there was a minimal decrease of 0.7% compared to the previous year.
The occupancy rate for the hospitals saw a rise, with 71.2% of the beds being utilized. This represented a 3.1% increase compared to 2022 but was still 7.8% lower than in 2019.
Strangely enough, in 2023, the average length of hospital stays remained unchanged at 7.2 days, as was the case in 2018.
By the end of 2023, there were a total of 211,994 medical staff and 1,083,000 non-medical staff employed in hospitals. This represented a 2.2% increase in doctors and a 2.5% rise in non-medical staff from the previous year. In the nursing service, which was counted separately, the workforce increased by 3.7%, totaling 528,323 employees and a gain of 19,034 staff members from the end of 2022.
The total number of hospital bed-days in 2023 was around 13.1 million, equating to approximately 1,874 hospitals in millions of beds-days.
The cost of hospital care in 2023 amounted to approximately 131.5 billion euros, accounting for approximately 1,874 hospitals operating in millions of euros.
