The impact of alcoholism on a community general hospital.

Only three studies are in existence on the impact of alcoholism on medical patients. No such study has been done on a community general hospital. The cases of 416 medical and surgical inpatients and 235 medical and surgical outpatients were reviewed. Alcoholism was found to be the major factor in the illness of 8.7% of the inpatients, nine-tenths of whom were middle class or above, and 13.4% in the outpatients, who were from social-class five. In the total of 651 patients, approximately one in ten was suffering from the abuse of alcohol. This is in line with Nolan's findings in 1965 at Yale-New Haven. The diagnostic and treatment implications of these findings are discussed.