title: Healthcare-associated infections and length of hospital stay in the Medicare population.
abstract: This study uses cross-sectional analysis of huge Medicare hospital discharge databases to test the hypothesis that hospitals with longer inpatient average lengths of stay (ALOS) will have higher healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates. For 4 carefully defined and important procedures, the authors investigated the relationship between a hospital's HAI rate and the ALOS for patients who did not have such an infection. The authors found a strong positive correlation between the 2 measures. This finding has important implications for improving patient safety and controlling cost. This article offers hypotheses on the causality of the ALOS-infection rate correlation and suggests ways to test those hypotheses.
authors.affiliation: Milliman USA, New York, NY 10119, USA. sherrie.dulworth@milliman.com
authors.forename: Sherrie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dulworth
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pyenson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare; D008875:Middle Aged