Specialist health service

Specialist health service --includes somatic and psychiatric hospitals and institutions, institutions related to drug abuse, ambulance service and private specialists with operating agreements.

General (somatic) hospitals are "normal" hospitals, i.e. not psychiatric hospitals. Day-cases are planned admittances without the patient staying overnight. The treatment given is more comprehensive than outpatient treatment.

Outpatient consultations include consultations and treatment carried out in hospitals without the patient being admitted.

Mental health care
Psychiatric health care for adults covers treatment of patients aged 18 and up. Patients under 18 are treated in psychiatric health care for children and adolescents.

Ambulance
In accordance with "Definisjonskatalog for AMK-/LV-sentraler" the definition of an ambulance is as follows:

"Ground-, air- or sea vehicles constructed/built for and used for transporting ill or hurt persons, with personnel, facilitated and equipped for treatment ahead of and during the transport."

Government mandate

Private institutions with government mandate function as a part of the Public Health system. The government make plans for how these institutions may operate and these institutions are responsible for providing specialist health services to inhabitants in specific geografical areas. There are 12 private institutions with government mandate: Stiftelsen Betanien Hospital Skien, Voss DPS NKS Bjørkeli AS, Haugesund Sanitetsforenings Revmatismesykehus AS, Lovisenberg diakonale sykehus AS, NKS Jæren Distriktspsykiatriske senter AS, Diakonhjemmet sykehus AS, NKS Olaviken Alderspsykiatriske senter AS, Stiftelsen Betanien Bergen, Martina Hansens Hospital AS, Haraldsplass diakonale sykehus AS, Solli sykehus og Revmatismesykehuset AS.

Operating agreement
An operating agreement is an agreement entered into by physicians and HE, and concerns operations and private practice. The services delivered by institutions with operating agreements are de facto part of the ordinary provided health care in the respective health regions.

Additionally, HE (or RHE) might purchase health care services from privately owned enterprises. Those contracts are often more short-term based than an operating agreement. The services purchased contribute to the general health care provided by HE and RHE.

Expenditure eksl. revenues
Expenditure includes expenses on wages and social benefits, expenses on equipment and maintenance, other current expenses and transfer expenses. Public grants is not included. Interest, principal repayment, financing transactions such as funds, charging of accounting losses/profits as expenses and coverage of previous years' losses, are not included. Refunded wages from national insurance for paid sick leave are corrected.

Revenues
Revenues include sales and leasing revenues and transfers. This corresponds to items 300-399, 570, 571, 579 and 583 in the regulations for the health enterprises. Financial transactions such as funds, and recording of surplus in the balance sheet are not included.

Depreciation
Depreciation in total includes depreciation of commercial buildings and other real estate, means of transport, medical technical equipment, machines, other equipment and furniture, ICT-equipment (Information and Communication technology-equipment), immaterial properties and write-down of fixed assets and immaterial properties.

Man-years are the number of full time employees and part-time employees converted to full-time equivalents at 31 December of the statistical year. Man-years cover the agreed working hours. Overtime is not included.

Bed capacity at the institutions

This is the number of accessible beds in the institution as of 31 December each year. Beds that are temporarily closed (e.g., during public holidays, etc.) are included.

Bed-days

Number of days a patient remains in hospital

Outpatient treatment
In somatic hospitals an outpatient treatment is: Examination/treatment and/or medical advice administered in or by a hospital. Usually, a physician should be present at such consultations. Consultations related to admitted patients, telephone consultations, lab tests and x-ray examination, are not included.

Outpatient consultations include consultations carried out in outpatient clinics or in psychiatric institutions, giving reimbursement from the state.

Ambulances operative parts of the day may denote vehicles operative between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., or in another period of the day.

Ambulances in 24-hour readiness are vehicles that are operative 24 hours a day.

Other ambulances are vehicles that are not included in the daily operations. These are standby ambulances and supplementary ambulances.

Specialist physicians are placed in various classes of subsidy . This is done subsequent to local negotiations between Health Enterprises and the physicians, with basis in the specialist need for housing, technical equipment and personnel. Subsidy is provided according to the following scale:

Class Amount per year (per 01.07.2009)

1 NOK 700 000

2 NOK 813 200

3 NOK 1 042 500

Population for this statistics is defined by Classification of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007).