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QJM Advance Access originally published online on July 30, 2007
QJM 2007 100(9):561-566; doi:10.1093/qjmed/hcm064
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Physicians. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Influence of prolonged hospitalization on overall bed occupancy: a five-year single-centre study

M.P. Quinn1, A.E. Courtney1, D.G. Fogarty1, D. O'Reilly2, C. Cardwell2 and P.T. McNamee1

From the 1Regional Nephrology Unit, Belfast City Hospital, and 2Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, The Queen's University, Belfast, UK

Address correspondence to Dr M.P. Quinn, Regional Nephrology Unit, Level 11, Belfast City Hospital, 51 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT97AB, UK. email: mquinn05{at}qub.ac.uk

Received 3 March 2007 and in revised form 9 May 2007


  Abstract

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.

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

Design: 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.

Discussion: 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.


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