The increasing impact of length of stay outliers on length of stay at an urban academic hospital
The increasing impact of length of stay outliers on length of stay at an urban academic hospital (Springer).
As healthcare systems strive for efficiency, hospital length of stay outliers have the potential to significantly impact a hospitals overall utilization. There is a tendency to exclude such outlier stays in local quality improvement and data reporting due to their assumed rare occurrence and
disproportionate ability to skew mean and other summary data. This study sought
to assess the influence of length of stay (LOS) outliers on inpatient length of
stay and hospital capacity over a 5-year period at a large urban academic
medical center.
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Conclusions
Outlier cases utilize a disproportionate and increasing share of hospital
resources and available beds. The current tendency to exclude such outlier
stays in data reporting due to assumed rare occurrence may need to be
revisited.
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Quelle: Springer, 09.09.2021
