Abstract
This study evaluated the impact of length of stay reduction by discharge status in the hospitals of Syracuse, New York. It focused on the two largest inpatient services, adult medicine and adult surgery, between 2008 and 2018. In the Syracuse hospitals, the adult medicine mean length of stay declined by 0.12 days, resulting in a savings of 14,154 patient days during the ten year period. The adult surgery mean stays declined by 0.91 days, resulting in a savings of 22,639 patient days. The reductions in stays were accompanied by differences in utilization by discharge status. For discharges to self care, the changes in mean stays increased the number of days saved for adult medicine from 5111 to 13,264 and the number of days saved for adult surgery from 4355 to 13,862. These changes were brought about through internal efficiencies within the hospitals. For discharges to nursing homes, the reductions in stays caused the number of excess days to decline from 13,631 to 8695 for adult medicine and from 9150 to 5075 for adult surgery. These changes were brought about through cooperative efforts with long term care providers in the community.
Highlights
In the United States, efforts are continuing to focus on improving the efficiency of health care
This study evaluated the impact of length of stay reduction by discharge status in the hospitals of Syracuse, New York
This study described the impact of reducing inpatient hospital lengths of stay by discharge status in the metropolitan area of Syracuse, New York during a 10 year period
Summary
In the United States, efforts are continuing to focus on improving the efficiency of health care. The expenses of health care have become a major burden for government through Medicare and Medicaid, as well as for businesses and individuals through private insurance. Most communities support acute care, ambulatory care, and long term care resources. Both the availability and use of these resources determine the outcomes of health care and the costs of producing them [3] [4]
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