The relationship between length of hospital stay and rapid-readmission rates

The average length of stay for patients on the psychiatric service of a large VA hospital in California was nine days in mid-1977. Such brief hospitalizations often led to insufficient discharge planning and rapid readmissions, within one month of discharge. VA policy changed in July 1977, and longer lengths of hospital stay were initiated. The experiences with brief and longer-term hospitalization enabled the authors to study the rapid-readmission rates for each length of stay. Their data showed that an increase in length of stay from nine to 26 days was associated with a 55 per cent reduction in the rate of rapid readmission. They admit that it is too early to conclude that the longer patient stay was responsible for the decrease, and feel that additional longitudinal study is necessary.