Abstract
BackgroundInappropriate hospitalization day (IHD) is recognized as an important indication of the excessive demand for health-care services, especially for surgical patients. We aim to examine the degree of IHDs, predictors associated with higher incidences of IHDs, and reasons for each IHD in different periods of hospitalization.MethodsA total of 4586 hospital days from 408 cases were evaluated by a cross-sectional and retrospective audit program carried out in a tertiary hospital with 5613 beds and 9623 faculty in Wuhan, China. This study used the revised Chinese version of the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (C-AEP) to assess IHDs, and the Delay Tool to ascertain each reason for IHDs. A binary logistic regression model was performed to examine the predictors of higher incidences of IHDs.ResultsThe average frequency of IHDs was 23.24 %, and a total of 322 cases (78.92 %) were reported to have experienced at least one IHD. The multivariate analysis showed that patients at the age of 60–69 with respect to under 50, and with overlength of stay were predictors of higher incidences of preoperative IHDs, while admission from outpatient, multiple diagnosis, higher surgical incision level, and overlength of stay were predictors of higher incidence of postoperative IHDs. The most frequent reasons related to health providers for IHDs were doctor’s conservative views of patient management and delays in inspection, prescription, appointment, or result report. Patient factors gave rise to nearly a quarter of postoperative IHDs.Conclusions Findings from this study indicate that measures including paying more attention to the construction of MDT for diagnosis and treatment in general surgery, reducing laboratory turnaround time, dispelling distrust among health-care providers and patients, setting stricter discharge standards and, providing integrated out-of-hospital services could be adopted accordingly to improve the inappropriateness of hospital stays.
Highlights
Inappropriate hospitalization day (IHD) is recognized as an important indication of the excessive demand for health-care services, especially for surgical patients
This study used the revised C-Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) to access the appropriateness of hospital stays, and the Delay Tool to ascertain each reason for IHDs
This study indicated that IHDs occurred in approximately 23.31 % of total hospital days among the surgical patients from three typical departments of this tertiary hospital
Summary
Inappropriate hospitalization day (IHD) is recognized as an important indication of the excessive demand for health-care services, especially for surgical patients. Between 2009 and 2020, the Government of China successively introduced policies focused on the expansion of health insurance and equities in health, impose restrictions on the excessive growth of medical expenses and supplier-induced demand in hospitals [2]. As life expectancy continues to soar with the rapid acceleration of urbanization in China, the proportion of those over 65 scales up. These phenomena are associated with increases in the non-communicable disease (NCD) burden [3]. The total health expenditure of the Chinese mainland has dramatically reached 6519.59 billion CNY in 2019 partly on the account of the extensive waste of medical resources since the nationwide health care reforms in 2009, with an average growth rate of nearly 14.2 % over the past 10 years which is generally rising faster than overall economic growth [4]
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