Hospital beds and how intensively they are used

Large totals in the cities, one outlier per resident

The country counts 27,800 beds in its hospitals, which makes 9.8 beds / 1,000 inh. for the whole population, against a median of 5.1 beds / 1,000 inh. for a municipality. In absolute terms the cities dominate: Vilnius City Municipality has 7,017 beds and Kaunas City Municipality has 5,489 beds, the two largest totals in the country, and Klaipėda City Municipality comes third with 3,144 beds.

Per resident, the order changes sharply. Rokiškis District Municipality is ranked 1 of 59, with 35.9 beds / 1,000 inh. for only 26,857 residents, and Klaipėda City Municipality, with 20.1 beds / 1,000 inh., comes second. The regional cities Alytus City Municipality, Panevėžys City Municipality and Šiauliai City Municipality fall in a similar range, with 19.1 beds / 1,000 inh., 18.1 beds / 1,000 inh. and 16.3 beds / 1,000 inh. respectively.

These per-resident figures are easily over-read. A single large facility is enough to lift the figure of a small municipality, and the next section shows that most of the beds in Rokiškis District Municipality are not acute-care beds.

Acute care is a narrower count

Total beds include places that are not used for acute treatment, so the acute-care count gives a different picture. Rokiškis District Municipality leads on total beds per resident. Its acute-care density, 1.9 beds / 1,000 inh., is below the median of 2.1 beds / 1,000 inh. for a municipality. Elektrėnai Municipality shows the same pattern, with 17.9 beds / 1,000 inh. in total but only 2.6 beds / 1,000 inh. for acute care.

The big cities tell another story. Kaunas City Municipality and Klaipėda City Municipality share the highest acute-care density, 12.2 beds / 1,000 inh., while the capital has 7.6 beds / 1,000 inh., although it records the most admissions of any municipality, with 286,378 admissions. Regional cities such as Panevėžys City Municipality, Šiauliai City Municipality and Alytus City Municipality also keep a dense acute-care supply, with 11.8 beds / 1,000 inh., 10.3 beds / 1,000 inh. and 9.2 beds / 1,000 inh. respectively.

Some municipalities report beds but no acute-care ones. Vilnius District Municipality and Kaunas District Municipality, two large district municipalities beside big cities, have 0.0 beds / 1,000 inh. and 0.0 beds / 1,000 inh., which suggests that their residents use the hospitals of the neighbouring cities.

How intensively the beds are used

Occupancy measures how much of the time acute-care beds are filled. The median municipality stands at 65.9%, while Druskininkai Municipality reaches 88.9% and Rokiškis District Municipality is close behind at 87.5%.

Occupancy is not a simple function of bed supply. Šalčininkai District Municipality reaches 83.3% with an acute-care density of 1.5 beds / 1,000 inh., below the median, whereas Kaunas City Municipality and Vilnius City Municipality, with a far denser acute-care supply, stand at 72.6% and 71.1%. Across the municipalities that report both measures, the link between the two is weak.

Several small municipalities report very full beds: Druskininkai Municipality stands at 88.9% and Varėna District Municipality at 81.3%, on 117 beds and 120 beds respectively. At the other end, Širvintos District Municipality has an occupancy of only 37.4%, which means that a large part of its acute-care beds is empty on an average day.

Short stays and long stays

Two other measures describe the rhythm of care: the average length of stay in acute-care beds and the number of patients treated per bed in a year. The median municipality has 5.6 days and 43.8 patients / bed.

The extremes mirror each other. The shortest average stay, 2.8 days, is found in Joniškis District Municipality, and the longest, 10.6 days, in Ignalina District Municipality. Bed turnover splits the same way, from 17.0 patients / bed in Ignalina District Municipality to 72.0 patients / bed in Joniškis District Municipality.

Short stays go with fast turnover, as expected, since a bed is freed sooner. In the big cities, stays are brief: Vilnius City Municipality stands at 4.7 days and Kaunas City Municipality at 5.2 days, with turnover of 55.7 patients / bed and 50.9 patients / bed.

Long stays, however, do not necessarily mean empty beds. In Ignalina District Municipality, a stay of 10.6 days and a turnover of 17.0 patients / bed go with an occupancy of 49.1%, whereas Šakiai District Municipality pairs a stay of 8.2 days with an occupancy of 76.9%.

Reading hospital data with care

Hospital figures describe facilities, not the residents of the municipality where they stand. Vilnius City Municipality shows 286,378 admissions and Kaunas City Municipality shows 208,588 admissions, counts that may include patients from outside the municipality, so dividing them by the local population would mislead.

Coverage is partial. Some municipalities have no hospital figure, and others report beds but no acute-care ones, so the rankings on occupancy, stay and turnover cover only part of the municipalities. All hospital figures refer to 2023. A bed count also says nothing about staffing or equipment, so beds per resident compares capacity on paper, not the care actually delivered.

The share of deaths among discharged patients is easy to misread. It stands at 10.15% in Ignalina District Municipality, where stays are long, and at 1.79% in Vilnius City Municipality, but it reflects the mix of patients treated, such as long-term or palliative care, and is not a measure of the quality of care.