Admissions to a radiation oncology inpatient service.
OBJECTIVE
Although the care of inpatients is an important aspect of radiation oncology practice in many countries, it has never been studied in detail. The goal of this study was to describe the admissions to a radiation oncology inpatient service over a 1-year period with respect to patient characteristics, primary malignancies, common nonmalignant diagnoses, use of radiotherapy and outcome of admission.


METHODS
Using computerized hospital databases, we analysed the utilization of 11 radiation oncology beds in a 424-bed teaching hospital from March 31, 1991, to April 1, 1992.


RESULTS
There were 342 admissions of 277 patients. The median age was 66.5 years; the male:female ratio was 1:1. The commonest primary neoplastic diagnoses were lung (42%), gynecological (15%), genitourinary (14%) and breast (8%) cancers. Only 17% of the patients had cancer as the sole diagnosis; most patients had multiple medical diagnoses. Infections (22%), neurological (20%), cardiovascular (13%) and endocrine (9%) conditions were the commonest. Mean length of stay was 11.25 days. Most of the admissions (71%) resulted in discharge to the patient's home; few patients (15%) died. Only half of admissions involved radiotherapy, indicating that the focus of patient care was the medical treatment of cancer complications or other active medical problems.


CONCLUSIONS
These data show that radiation oncology inpatients have complicated medical problems, and they support the training of radiation oncologists in the comprehensive medical care of patients.
Radiation Oncology Research Unit, Queen's University, Kingston General Hospital, Ont. chayter@octrf.on.ca
C R
CR
Hayter
W J
WJ
Mackillop
D000368:Aged; D001509:Bed Occupancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D003191:Comprehensive Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019992:Databases as Topic; D004700:Endocrine System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D008297:Male; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018787:Radiation Oncology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015996:Survival Rate; D014565:Urogenital Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000532:radiotherapy