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

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Hospital Operations
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Efficient hospital bed utilization is vital for National Health Service (NHS) efficiency.
• Current strategies focus on decreasing mean occupancy to improve overall efficiency.
• Elderly patients and those with complex conditions are believed to contribute significantly to bed occupancy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of prolonged hospital stays (over 100 days) on overall bed occupancy.
• To analyze the effect of extended admissions in a contemporary teaching hospital setting.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 117,178 admission episodes over five years.
• Utilized a logistic regression model to identify factors influencing length of stay.
• Study conducted in a large UK teaching hospital serving approximately 200,000 people.

Main Results:

• Prolonged hospital stays (>100 days) occurred in 648 episodes (0.6% of all admissions).
• These prolonged stays accounted for 11% of total bed occupancy over the five-year study period.
• Excluding prolonged stays did not alter the overall median length of stay.

Conclusions:

• Prolonged hospitalizations substantially affect hospital bed occupancy rates.
• Targeting interventions at very long hospital stays (>100 days) may be a more effective strategy for enhancing overall hospital efficiency than focusing on mean or median lengths of stay.