ECHSS: 10 Years On

The European Collaborative Health Services Studies (ECHSS) form a programme of related projects involving collaboration between research workers and health care staff in different parts of Europe. One hospital was selected from each country involved for detailed study. The programme started in 1977 with an analysis and comparison of the data routinely available from local statistical sources on the supply of resources and levels of activity. Management ratios based on the ‘triangle’ of staff, beds and population were developed, and very substantial variation was found. This urns followed by analyses of case mix and a cross‐sectional ‘census’ of all those occupying beds in the hospitals concerned. The second five‐year period of the pro‐gramme took three complimentary directions. Work on hospital care became more focused; and patients with selected ‘tracer conditions’ were studied progressively, looking in more detail at the process of health care for comparable groups of patients. At the same time the scop...