At the same time, there was a substantial gradual reduction in the average length of stay (ALoS) from 4.75 days in 2009 to 3.86 days in 2013 (i.e. -18.7%). The increased number of admissions combined with the reduced mean length of stay accounts for an overall reduction of 8% in the total number of inpatient days for the same five-year period. It is also interesting to note that there was an 8.5% reduction in the number of laboratory tests between 2009 and 2013 after an intermediate peak of 5.1% which occurred in 2011. It should also be taken into account that since the onset of the crisis, certain nongovernment organizations such as Médecins du Monde and Medecins Sans Frontieres, which had been providing health care services mainly to immigrants, started to cover additional groups of the population including the poor, the unemployed and the uninsured .