National university hospital discharge survey in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We aimed to determine the rate of hospital discharge, average length of stay and bed occupancy rate in different hospital wards around the country. The survey consisted of health care service activities from 452 university-related hospitals in the country with a total of 59,348 beds. Because of missing data, the use of 56,315 of these beds was analysed. The countrywide discharge rate was 68.32 patients/1000 population per year with an average length of stay of 3.60 days and a bed occupancy rate of 57.44%. The data could be used to design a framework for prediction of inpatient health care facilities needed in the future.