The objective of this study was to discover the resources of the hospital system of the Paraíba Valley, Brazil and to establish their relationships by finding the hospital bed-inpatient ratio. The number of discharges and deaths that occurred in the Valley's general care hospitals in 1974 were studied so that certain variables (sex, age, residence) could be established. Analysis of these variables and their relationships furnished data for estimating bed need.
Hospitals; Hospital bed capacity; Bed occupancy