Effect of pressure ulcers on length of hospital stay.
OBJECTIVE
To identify the independent effect of pressure ulcers on excess length of stay and control for all observable factors that may also contribute to excess length of stay. Hospitalized patients who develop a pressure ulcer during their hospital stay are at a greater risk for increased length of stay as compared with patients who do not.


METHODS
Cross-sectional, observational study.


METHODS
Tertiary-care referral and teaching hospital in Australia.


METHODS
Two thousand hospitalized patients 18 years and older who had a minimum stay in the hospital of 1 night and admission to selected clinical units.


METHODS
Two thousand participants were randomly selected from 4,500 patients enrolled in a prospective survey conducted between October 2002 and January 2003. Quantile median robust regression was used to assess risk factors for excess length of hospital stay.


RESULTS
Having a pressure ulcer resulted in a median excess length of stay of 4.31 days. Twenty other variables were statistically significant at the 5% level in the final model.


CONCLUSIONS
Pressure ulcers make a significant independent contribution to excess length of hospitalization beyond what might be expected based on admission diagnosis. However, our estimates were substantially lower than those currently used to make predictions of the economic costs of pressure ulcers; existing estimates may overstate the true economic cost.
Graves
Nicholas
N
School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove QLD, 4059, Australia. n.graves@qut.edu.au
Birrell
Frances
F
Whitby
Michael
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors