• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.245-265
• /
• 1997

The purpose of this study was to promote the effectiveness in managing disease or injury, by examining the length of stay in hospital according to characteristics concerned before and after operation, and by serving as a basis for reducing that length. As a result of investigating the length of stay in hospital according to inpatient's personal characteristics, clinical features and other characteristics concerned, the following characteristics appeared significant. The characteristics that showed a significant difference about the length of stay in hospital before and after operation were the age and the fact whether one was married or not among inpatient's personal characteristics. The significant ones among clinical features were the route to be taken to hospital, the form of insurance, the experience of re-hospitalization, whether another disease coexisted, the experiment of changing department, whether a diagnosis was determined by consultation, whether an intensive care unit was used, whether re-operation was performed, the total number of case of the experience of re-hospitalization, inpatient who were again sent to hospital under the same diagnosis was not included in the investigation, which was pointed out as a limit in this study. The significant ones among other characteristics concerned were the date and season when the patients were taken to hospital and the doctor in attendance. The doctor in attendance appeared to give a significant impact on the length of stay in hospital before operation, but no significant difference was noted in the mean among the doctors in attendance. And those characteristics were not found regularly among the selected departments. As stated above, one way to reduce the length of stay In hospital was to diminish the length of stay in hospital before operation. The term of hospitalization before operation shall be reduced by grasping the factors that affected that length before operation and by conducting examination as many as possible in the out-patient department. Also, the efforts should be put on that length after operation. The management of hospital seemed to be successfully carried out if those factors affected that length were effectively controlled.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.173-178
• /
• 2017

Purpose: Most patients with acute low back pain visit emergency room (ER). They mostly need beds, and if their length of stay is longer, it can become difficult to accommodate new patients at the ER. We analyzed the treatment process of patients with back pain and tried to find method for shortening of the length of stay at the ER. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients with back pain who visited at our ER for one year. Patients were divided into two groups according to their length of stay at ER and were compared the charateristcs of between two groups. Results: A total of 274 patients were included in the study. Eigthy-nine patients (32.5%) were in the group with less than 3 hours and 185 patients (67.5%) were in the other group. In the comparison of the two groups according to the medical departments, the number of patients who were in group with more than 3 hours were 25 (14.0%) in the emergency department, 94 (50.5%) in neurosurgery, 66 (35.5%) in orthopedic surgery. Length of stay was significantly increased in orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery (p=0.014). In addition, the length of stay was longer when computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging examinations were performed (p=0.000). Regardless of the type of analgesic agent, the median time to the analgesic treatment was shorter in the group with less than 3 hours (p=0.034). Conclusions: In patients with back pain who visit the ER, the emergency medicine doctor will early control the pain and do not unnecessary image examination to reduce a length of stay at the ER.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.52-62
• /
• 2018

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting in-hospital complication and length of stay in elderly patients with total knee arthroplasty. A total of 8,224 inpatients over 65 years old were selected from the national old inpatient sample data which was produced by Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in 2016. STATA 12.0 was performed using frequency, chi-square test, t-test, ANOVA and multiple linear and logistic regression analysis. Analysis results show that ages(over 85), Charlson Comorbidity Index, district(metropolitan) for general hospitals and gender, district, beds(100-199) for hospitals are significantly influenced in-hospital complication. Statistically significant factors affecting the length of stay are gender, insurance type, depression, district, bed(300 over) for general hospitals and gender, type of insurance, Charlson Comorbidity Index, depression, district, beds(200-299) for hospitals. Based on these findings, the factors affecting in-hospital complication and length of stay were different depending on the type of medical institution. Accordingly, policymakers should analyze the differences in care behavior depending on the type of medical institution and expand policy and financial support to resolve them.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.18-29
• /
• 2000

Back injury is frequent in industry workers and is a common cause of productivity loss. It has been reported that the insured of industrial accident insurance tend to stay in hospital longer than that of other types of insurance. The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting the length of hospital stay for the treatment of back injury in the workers under industrial accident insurance. The results of this study help insurers develop reasonable industrial accident insurance policy for back injury claims and prevention strategies of work-related back injury. A total of 2,949 patients whose industrial accident insurance claim has been approved for the treatment of work-related back injury from January to December 1999 were included in this study. Relationship between the length of hospital stay and characteristics of patient, work place, back injury, and hospital were assessed using ANOVA, t-test, simple linear regression and multiple resgression. The major findings of this study are as follows : 1. The average length of hospital stay(LOS) was 91.82 days, respectively. 2. Characteristics of Patient LOS of male patients was longer than that of female patients, there was positive correlation between age and LOS and between average wage and LOS. Working period was negatively correlated with LOS. Distance from resident to hospital was positively correlated with LOS and LOS was significantly different dependign on type of duty. 3. Characteristics of Work Place LOS was significantly different depending on types of industry and geographical region of work place. Size of work place was positively correlated with LOS. 4. Characteristics of Back Injury Occupational back pain required shorter LOS compared with back injury due to electric shock. Number of concomitant illnesses and severity of disability were positively correlated with LOS. 5. Characteristics of Hospital Patients treated in community hospitals required significantly longer LOS. Treatment in hospitals with rehabilitation program required decreased LOS. This was more prominent as number of physicians specialized in rehabilitation. 6. Multiple regression analysis revealed that distance form resident to hospital, geographical region of work place, size of work place, number of concomitant illnesses, severity of disability, and type of hospital were factors affecting LOS.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.87-99
• /
• 2011

Purpose: The study was designed to identify the factors that influence the length of stay of elderly people in the recovery room. Methods: The design of the study was descriptive correlation. The subjects were 196 general anesthesia patients. The data were analyzed by SPSS/WIN 17.0 program. Results: The average length of stay in the recovery room was 62.62 minutes. The length of stay in the recovery room was influenced by age (27.50%); number of diseases (12.97%) and albumin level (6.75%). Other related post operative factors (30.98%) were abnormal ABGA, shivering, PAR score, pain, arrhythmia, amount of bleeding, cardiovascular complication, hypertension and delirium. Those factors explained 78.2% out of the total variance of the length of stay. The strongest effector was the abnormal ABGA (${\beta}$=.226) and then shivering (${\beta}$=.222). Conclusion: The influencing factors should be assessed and monitored for the aged before and after surgery. Further research is needed to find the exact factors for ICU transfer elderly from recovery room and emergency surgery target.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.58-72
• /
• 2000

This study was an attempt to encourage the development of a rehabilitation delivery system and programs as a substitute service for hospitalization on the case of car accident patients, such as hospital based home health care nursing services. Various substitute services for hospitalization are required to curtail the length of stay for inpatients who were hospitalized with car accident compensation insurance. It focused on developing an estimation an early discharge day for car accident inpatients based on detailed statements of treatment for 111 inpatients who were hospitalized at the General Hospital in 1997. This study had four specific purposes as follows. First. to find out the utilization of medical services. Second, to estimate the time of early discharge and income increasing effect based on early discharge for those patients. Third, to identify the factors affecting total medical expenditure and the length of stay for those inpatients. Forth, to figure out the need of utilizing home health care nursing service for accident patients. In order to analyze the length of stay and medical expenditure for inpatients who were hospitalized due to car accidents, the authors conducted micro- and macro-analysis of medical and medical expenditure records. Micro-analysis was done by nominal group discussion of 4 expertise with the critical criteria, such as a decrease in the amount of treatment after surgery, treatments, tests, drugs and changes in the test consistency, drug methods, vital signs, start of ROM exercise, doctor's order, patient's outside visiting ability, and stable conditions. In addition to identifying variables affecting medical expenditure, and the length of stay and income effect due to early discharge day, the data was analyzed with a multiple regression analysis and linear regression analysis model by SPSS-PC for windows and Excell program. Results of this study were as follows. First. the mean length of stay was 50.3 days. whereas the mean length of stay due to early discharge was 34.3 days at the hospital. The estimation of time of early discharge depended on the length of stay. The longer the length of stay, the longer the length of time of early discharge : for instance a length of stay under 10 days was estimated as correlating to a mean length of stay of 6.6 days and early discharge of 6.5. The mean length of stay was 217.4 days and the time of early discharge was 110.1 respectively. The mean medical expenditure per day was found to be 169.085 Won and the mean medical expenditure per day showed negative linear trends according to the length of stay at the hospital. The estimation results of the income effect due to being discharged 16 days early was around 2,244,000 won per bed. However. this sum does not represent the real benefits resulting from early discharge, but rather the income increasing amount without considering medical prime cost in the general hospital. Therefore, further analysis is required on the cost containments and benefits as turn over rate per bed as the medical prime costs. The length of stay was most significant and was positive to the total medical expenditure, as expected. Surgery and patient's residential area was also an important variable in explaining medical expenditure. The level of complications was the most significant variable in explaining the length of stay. There was a high level for need a home health care nursing service which further supports early discharge for accident patients. In addition, when the patient was discharged. they needed follow up care for complications suffered during the car accident. $86.8\%$ of discharged patients responded that they needed home health services after early discharge. From these research findings, the following suggestions have been drawn. Strategies on a health care delivery system must be developed in order to focus on the consumer's needs and being planned for 21 century health policy in Korea. Community based intermediate facilities or home health care should be developed for rehabilitation services as a substitute for hospitalization in order to shorten the length of stay would be. A hospital based home health care nursing service. it would be available immediately to utilize by patients who want rehabilitation services as a substitute for hospitalization with the cooperation of car insurance companies.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.433-442
• /
• 2018

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the factors affecting postoperative pain and length of hospital stay of liver transplantation donors. Methods: This is a retrospective study using the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) of 91 patients operated on at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea in 2016. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's rank correlation, and multiple regression analysis. Results: The average age of the donors was $35.7{\pm}12.2$ years, and all donors were family members. PCA was applied for control pain in all patients, and 40.7% of PCA-related side effects were observed. The average length of hospital stay was $9.24{\pm}2.52$ days. The factors influencing the length of hospital stay were operative methods, pain control methods, and postoperative complications. The length of hospital stay was 1.29 days shorter if donors had no complication, 1.43 days shorter when only PCA was used, and 1.19 days shorter when laparoscopic resection was performed (Adjusted $R^2=0.17$, F=4.67, p<.05). Conclusion: The results of this study can be used as basic data for practical and effective postoperative nursing education and intervention of living liver donors.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.126-131
• /
• 2012

Purpose: We developed a standardized critical pathway for gastric cancer surgery and then determined the increase of application, which resulted in an improvement in terms of measurable indices, such as hospital stay and cost. Materials and Methods: A critical pathway was revised and used widely from the 2nd quarter of 2009. We collected clinical data, such as length of stay and complication rate, as clinical indices of quality prospectively. The total cost paid at the patient's discharge, as well as the daily hospital income, were calculated and compared by each quarter from January 2008 to December 2009. Results: The application rate of critical pathway was 11.8% and 87.8% in 2008 and 2009, respectively. There were no perioperative deaths. There was no difference in the complication rates between 2008 and 2009 (P=0.45). However, the mean length of stay was significantly different between the 2 years (P<0.05). Although the total cost was not different, the daily hospital income was significantly higher in the latter year (P<0.05). Conclusions: An increase in the application of critical pathway for gastrectomy resulted in significant decreases in length of stay and increases in the daily hospital income without a compromise on the clinical indices.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.6
• /
• pp.5-18
• /
• 1999

This study was attempt to encourage for developing on rehabilitation delivery system and programs as a substitute service instead of hospitalization for accident patients at work, such as hospital based home health care nursing service. It needs vary substitutes service of hospitalization to curtail the length of stay for inpatients who were hospitalized with workers compensation insurance. It focused on developing an estimation of early discharge day of accident inpatients based on a detail statement of treatment for 115 inpatients who were hospitalized at General Hospital in 1997. This study has four specific purpose as follows. First, to find out the status of health service utilization. Second, to estimate the early discharge days and income increasing effect based on the early discharge for those patients. Third, to identify the factors to affect total medical expenditure and the length of stay for those inpatients. Forth, to figure out the need of utilizing home health care nursing service for accident patients. In order to analyze of the length of stay and medical expenditure for inpatients who were hospitalized due to the accident, the authors conducted with micro-analysis and macroanalysis from medical records and medical expenditure records. Micro-analysis was done by nominal group discussion of 4 expertise with the critical criteria. such as a decrease in the amount of treatment after surgery, treatments, tests, drugs and changes in the tests consistency, drug methods, vital signs, start of ROM exercise, doctor's order, patient's outside visiting ability, stable conditions. In addition to identify affected variables for medical expenditure. the length of stay and income effect due to early discharge day, the data was analyzed with multiple regression analysis and linear regression analysis model by SPSS-PC for windows and Excell program. Results of this study as follows. First, the mean length of stay was 37.1 days, whereas the mean length of stay due to early discharge was 28.2 days at the hospital. The estimation of early discharge days were shown that depends on the length of stay. The longer length of stay, the longer length of early discharge days, such as under 7 days length of stay patients was to estimated the mean length of stay was 4.9 days and early discharge days was 4.6. whereas the mean length of stay was 122.6 days and early discharge days was 92.0 respectively. The mean medical expenditure per day were found to be 133.409 Won. whereas the mean medical expenditure per day was shown negative linear trends according to the length of stay at the hospital. The estimation results of the income effect due to 11 early discharge days per bed was around 2,150,000 won. However, it means not the real benefits from early discharge, but the income increasing amount without considering medical prime cost in general hospital. Therefore, it needs further analysis on the cost containments and benefits under the considering as well turn over rates per bed as the medical prime costs. The length of stay was most significant and the sign was positive to the total medical expenditure, as expected. Surgery and patient's residential area also an important variable in explaining medical expenditure. The level of complications was most significant variable in explaining the length of stay. The level of the needs on horne health care nursing service which can be used for early discharge accident patients were shown very high. The needs distribution varied from 65.5% of patients and 88.9% of caregivers, to 96.4% of doctors, and 99.1% of nurses. In addition horne health nurse responded that they can be managed the accident inpatients from early discharge. From these research findings. the following suggestions has been drawn it needs to develop strategies on rehabilitation delivery system in order to focused on consumer's side which is planned for 21 century health policy in Korea. Vary intermediate facilities and horne health care would have been developed in the community based for comprehensive rehabilitation services as a substitutes of hospitalization for shortening the length of stay of hospitalizations. In hospital based horne health care nursing service, it's available immediately to utilize for the patients who wanted rehabilitation services as a substitutes of hospitalization under the cooperations with workers compensation insurance company.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.13 no.8
• /
• pp.314-323
• /
• 2013

This study analyzed the relationship between the level of hospital caseloads and length of stay for the delivery patients. The differences of hospital caseloads were measured by the Internal Herfindahl Index, which measured the concentration of delivery patient in a hospital. And the structure variables of hospitals such as the number of bed, the number of treatment, and the number of doctors and nurses per 100 beds were included as control variables. And average length of stay of delivery patients was used as the dependent variable. Concentration status of delivery patients was measured in two models: (1) first model represents the concentration level of delivery patient in all hospital patients, (2) second model represents the concentration level of delivery patient in all obstetrics and gynecology patients. In regression analysis, patient concentration index was not statistically significant in explaining the variation of average length of stay in two models. But the number of delivery patients and number of beds were statistically significant. The number of delivery patient variable showed negative regression coefficient with average length of stay and the number of beds showed positive coefficient with average length of stay. This study result indicated that the volume of delivery patients in a hospital will play a significant role in reducing the length of stay of delivery patients. Patient volume could contribute in improving the efficiency of patient care in a hospital.