title: Factors affecting length of stay in teaching hospitals of a middle-income country.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The length of stay (LOS) in hospitals is a widely used and important criteria for evaluating hospital performance. The aim of this study was to determine factors affecting LOS in teaching hospitals of Qazvin Providence.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, patients' health records were randomly selected from archives in teaching hospitals of Qazvin in 2013. Data were collected through a data entry form and were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney U tests at the significant level of 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean of hospital LOS was 5.45 ± 6.14 days. Age, employment, marital status, history of previous admission, patient condition at discharge, method of payment, and type of treatment had an impact on LOS (p<0.05). Other factors, including gender, place of residence, and type of admission, did not affect LOS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Because hospitals consume a perceptible part of resources in a health system, controlled and optimized use of its resources help to save a lot. Therefore, this study showed many clinical and nonclinical factors affect LOS in evaluating these factors, which may reduce inappropriate hospital stays and decrease costs.
authors.affiliation: Ph.D. Candidate of Health Services Management, Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Khosravizadeh
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor of Health Services Management Department, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Soudabeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vatankhah
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Health Human Resources Research Center, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Peivand
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bastani
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran.
authors.forename: Rohollah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kalhor
authors.affiliation: Health Services Management Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Samira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alirezaei
authors.affiliation: Students Research Committee, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
authors.forename: Farzane
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Doosty
keywords: Clinical and nonclinical factors; Hospital performance; Length of stay; Teaching hospital