[A representative study of the scope and structure of faulty admissions of acute hospital patients over 60 years of age].

The extent and the structure of inappropriate, i.e. medically unnecessary hospital utilisation by patients of 60 years of age and over, in German acute hospitals were assessed by reviewing a randomised sample of medical records judged by physicians. This rating method was tested, standardised and evaluated. The most important result of the study was that the mean length of story was 17.4 days of which 2.9 days (17%) were estimated to be inappropriately used. If this result is projected to all West German hospitals, 35,000 hospital beds are inappropriately occupied by patients over 60 years of age for a total of 10.5 million patient days per year.