Hospital length of stay on a diabetes cluster unit.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the length of hospital stay for patients with either a primary or a secondary diagnosis of diabetes mellitus can be reduced by use of a diabetes cluster unit.


METHODS
For a period of 12 months, we compared the length of hospital stay for 462 patients with diabetes who were admitted to a diabetes cluster unit and for 1,855 patients with diabetes who were admitted to the other medical and surgical units during the same period. Statistical analysis was done by comparing the calculated average length of stay for patients with primary and secondary diagnoses of diabetes admitted to both types of hospital accommodations and comparing these values with the expected lengths of hospital stay based on the New York Group Standard.


RESULTS
The mean length of hospital stay for patients who were admitted to the diabetes unit for a primary diagnosis of diabetes was 5.8 days shorter than for those admitted to regular medical and surgical units (7.6 days or 1% below the expected duration versus 13.4 days or 70% longer than the expected duration, respectively; P<0.0002). For a secondary diagnosis of diabetes, patients in the diabetes unit had an average length of stay of 15.5 days (35% longer than the expected duration) in comparison with 17 days (45% longer than expected) for patients on the other medical and surgical units (no significant difference).


CONCLUSIONS
For hospitalization of patients with diabetes, geographic clustering seems to reduce the length of stay for patients with a primary diagnosis of diabetes mellitus.
Poretsky
L
L
Department of Medicine, Cabrini Medical Center, New York Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Koproski
J
J
Pretto
Z E
ZE