The abilities of physicians to estimate the length of stay of their hospital patients was investigated. Two estimates were made; one at admission request and another after a prescribed number of days of hospitalization. Data are presented as correlation coefficients between actual and estimated lengths of stay and as conditional frequency functions of actual given an estimated length of stay. Differences between physicians in surgical and medical service are shown. It is concluded that physicians' estimates may be a useful source of data for operating an elective patient scheduling system.
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