Predictors of prolonged adult hospitalization in the tertiary care hospital emergency department of Saudi Arabia
Abstract
The Length of Stay (LOS) in the Emergency Department (ED) is considered as an indicator of performance across many nations. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the predictors of increased LOS in a sample of adult patients, admitted to an ED of a major tertiary care hospital in the KSA. A cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2017 to March 2018 in the ED of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz University Hospital, Riyadh, KSA. The medical records of all patients (11513) who were admitted to ED were extracted and analyzed using STATA version 16.
In multivariable analysis, after adjusting for other covariates, the LOS was 70 minutes higher in patients discharged against medical advice (DAMA) versus those with no DAMA. Similarly, in patients presenting to emergent and urgent triage, the expected LOS was 221 minutes and 88 minutes higher as compared to non-ER patients. The expected LOS was 13 minutes higher among > 40 years old females compared to males of the same age group. There is a need to explore organizational hospital-related factors that might be related to significant patient-related predictors identified in this study. Future studies should aim to explore the underlying causes of gender differences related to the extended length of stay in Saudi Arabia.
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