The Danish psychiatric system has gone through several structural changes in the last four decades. The deinstitutionalization of the mental healthcare system was implemented in Denmark in the late 1970s with the intention of increasing outpatient treatment. One of the aims in the reorganization was to treat the patient in the local environment rather than during long-term hospitalization.

This study focuses on the changes in the utilization of hospital facilities for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The aims of this study were to analyze the development of admission/readmission, bed days and occupancy rates over four decades (1970–2012) in Denmark in schizophrenia treatment using admission statistics for in-patients only.

Using register data from secondary healthcare treatment of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia in Denmark 1970–2012, we analyzed the development in the use of hospital facilities.

Our major finding was a 220% increase between 1970 and 2012 in the total number of hospital admissions due to schizophrenia each year, while at the same time the number of annual schizophrenia bed days was reduced by 76%. Furthermore, the readmission rate within a year after discharge with a diagnosis of schizophrenia reached 70% in 2012 compared to 51% in 1970. Finally, the total bed occupancy continued to rise over the four decades and has exceeded 100% in several years since 1999.

The findings indicate that the reorganization of the Danish mental healthcare system has created a problem of “revolving door” schizophrenia patients’ who since the 1970s have been increasingly hospitalized but for shorter periods.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.