Fifteen years of inpatient care in an academic division of general internal medicine: 1980-1994. Trends over time in patient's diagnoses, case-severity, case-complexity and mortality rate.
We describe the trends over time in patient's diagnoses, case-complexity, case-severity, length of stay and mortality rate during the last 15 years in an academic division of general internal medicine (GIM). Our study shows that GIM patients presented with a broad spectrum of diseases. Moreover, important changes were observed in the patient characteristics, i.e. a progressive increase in urgent admissions, severe medical conditions and elderly population. This evolution was associated with a significant rise in case-severity and case-complexity which explains the observed increase in hospital mortality rate. These variables should be accounted for when analyzing processes and outcomes of inpatient medical care in internal medicine.
Beguin
C
C
Divisions of General Internal Medicine, University of Louvain Medical School, UCL, Brussels, Belgium.
Boland
B
B
van Mullem
X
X
van Mullem
T
T
France
F R
FR
Coche
E
E
Lambert
M
M
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D005260:Female; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity / Q000639:trends*; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends; D012720:Severity of Illness Index