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Differences between long-stay and short-stay inpatients and estimation of length of stay

A prospective study

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Summary

To find possible differences between new long-stay inpatients and patients with shorter lengths of stay, a prospective study of 340 inpatients in the 4th week of hospitalization was carried out. The new long-stay patients differed from the others in diagnoses, symptoms, duration of prior hospitalizations, and socio-demographic data. On the basis of the data assessed in the 4th week of hospitalization, we tried not only to predict future new long-stay patients, but also to estimate the length of stay for all 340 patients. A time-function model was employed with length of stay as a continuous variable, and this resulted in correct allocation to the quartiles in 38–48% of the cases. Six variables proved to be important for estimating length of stay: emotional withdrawal, blunted affect, mannerisms, duration of previous hospitalizations, living conditions (prior to admission), and marital status.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatric Clinic of Berne University, Berne, Switzerland

    J. Jakubaschk, D. Waldvogel & O. Würmle

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  1. J. Jakubaschk
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  2. D. Waldvogel
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  3. O. Würmle
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Jakubaschk, J., Waldvogel, D. & Würmle, O. Differences between long-stay and short-stay inpatients and estimation of length of stay. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 28, 84–90 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00802097

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00802097

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