Short-term outcomes of patients with a long stay in an internal medicine service

To describe the characteristics and short-term prognostic factors of patients with prolonged stay in internal medicine.

Retrospective case series study including patients admitted to an Internal Medicine service of a university hospital with lengths of stay greater than 30 days during 5 years. Information was obtained from the Minimum Basic Data Set. Outcome variables were a very long length of stay, in-hospital mortality, and adverse outcomes in the first 30 days after discharge.

Out of 11,948 patients, 335 (2.8%) cases had a prolonged stay. The total length of stay was 15,271 days (15% of the total length of stay of the service). The mean age was 74.5 (±13.9) years, 180 (53.7%) were male. The median length of stay was 39 (RIC 34-49) days. Intensive Care Unit admission (OR = 2.5; 95%CI 1.4-4.7; p = 0.003) and receiving a geriatric assessment (OR = 0.3; 95%CI 0.8-0.9; p = 0.042) were independent factors with an effect on very long length of stay. Having an admission in the previous year was an independent factor for an adverse outcome 30 days after discharge (OR = 2.2; 95%CI 1.0-4.8).

The percentage of patients with prolonged length of stay is less than 3%, but they have a high impact on the activity of an internal medicine service. There are factors associated with a very long length of stay and with the presence of an early adverse outcome after discharge.