Influence of prolonged hospitalization on overall bed occupancy: a five-year single-centre study.
BACKGROUND
Effective bed use is crucial to an efficient NHS. Current targets suggest a decrease in mean occupancy as the most appropriate method of improving overall efficiency. The elderly and those suffering from complex medical problems are thought to account for a high proportion of overall bed occupancy.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of prolonged hospital stay (>100 days) on overall bed occupancy in a modern teaching hospital.


METHODS
Retrospective analysis.


METHODS
Analysis of all admission episodes (n = 117,178) over a five-year period in a large teaching hospital in a single UK region, serving a population of approximately 200,000. A logistic regression multi-factorial model was used to assess the effect of demographic and diagnostic variables on duration of stay.


RESULTS
A prolonged stay (>100 days) was seen in 648 admission episodes (0.6%). These accounted for 11% of the overall bed occupancy over the 5-year period. Excluding all prolonged admission episodes from our analysis made no difference to the overall median length of stay.


CONCLUSIONS
Prolonged hospitalizations have a significant impact on bed occupancy. Targeting these very long (>100 days) hospital stays may better improve overall efficiency, compared to targeting mean or median length of stay.
Quinn
M P
MP
Regional Nephrology Unit, Level 11, Belfast City Hospital, 51 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT97AB, UK. mquinn05@qub.ac.uk
Courtney
A E
AE
Fogarty
D G
DG
O'reilly
D
D
Cardwell
C
C
McNamee
P T
PT
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001509:Bed Occupancy; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009660:Northern Ireland