Appropriate utilization of hospital beds in internal medicine: evaluation in a tertiary care hospital.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the appropriateness of utilization of beds in the internal medicine department of a university hospital.


METHODS
The appropriateness of hospital stay was evaluated using the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol. A random sample of 402 days of stay was assessed.


RESULTS
One hundred and thirty-nine days of stay (34.6%) were classified as inappropriate. The inappropriate stays were mostly secondary to hospital-related factors. The two major factors for inappropriate stays were 'inappropriate timing/delay in diagnostic procedures/consultations' (27%) and 'delay in obtaining test results' (27%). None of the factors including age, gender, residence and inpatient period was significantly related to inappropriate stay in univariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
This study indicated that a significant portion of stays were inappropriate. Efforts to decrease particularly hospital-related factors associated with inappropriate stay are needed.
Dizdar
Omer
O
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. omerdiz@yahoo.com
Karadağ
Omer
O
Kalyoncu
Umut
U
Kurt
Mevlüt
M
Ulger
Zekeriya
Z
Sardan
Yeşm Cetinkaya
YC
Unal
Serhat
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005260:Female; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014421:Turkey