Abstract
To the Editor: As stated in several international studies [1–14], the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) [15–18] is a useful tool to detect the overuse of hospitalization resources. We modified the AEP to the Dutch health care system in order to assess appropriateness of care in Dutch hospitals [19,20]. Since we expected to find in this study a rate of inappropriate stay similar to that of other international studies (approximately 30%), we were indeed very surprised to find a rate of only 14% for the Department of Internal Medicine. Unfortunately, we were not able to maintain this rate over the years. Our research has shown that the rate of inappropriate stay in the Department of Internal Medicine in 2001 increased to 21.2% (our unpublished data). However, this is still lower than the 30% mentioned above. Inappropriate stay should be monitored in order to use hospital resources as efficiently as possible. Therefore, in the past, several actions to decrease the length of hospital stay have been implemented in …
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