Day care provision in Ireland: a survey of service utilisation and funding issues: report 1: Day service utilisation

The core rationale for this study arises from the fact that while day care provision is an expanding area within the Irish hospital system, the information currently available on utilisation levels and cost implications is limited and unsatisfactory. In this study, it is intended to address the issue of utilisation at both the national and the hospital level, in addition to assessing the associated implications for funding. This first report is primarily concerned with an assessment of utilisation and service provision for the last full year for which data are available, ie. 1992. The definition of the day care service area is, in itself, problematic. In this report. some background on approaches to definition will be reviewed, together with the application of the definition currently used by the Department of Health. The Hospital Inpatient Enquiry (HIPE) is the source used for the utilisation data, and the statistics collected by the Planning Unit, Department of Health is the source of the information on coverage. Moving on from the review of definitional issues presented at the beginning of this report, the results of a series of analyses on utilisation and service provision are presented. In the next report for the project, issues arising with regard to the future definition of day care service provision will be considered. In addition, the range of efforts which might be applied to address gaps in the utilisation and cost data will also be addressed.