While only 5 percent of trauma patients experience excessively prolonged hospital stays, only 20 percent of those stays are clinical, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers at a level I trauma center tracked stays for more than 3,000 trauma patients to determine the causes of expensive, excessively prolonged stays.
They discovered patients experiencing excessively long stays tended to be older blunt trauma patients without private insurance. This group was more often discharged to post-acute care facilities and had higher hospitalization costs, though group members experienced the same injury severity and in-hospital complication rates as other trauma patients.
Nonclinical discharge delays were related to difficulties in rehabilitation facility placement (47 percent of cases), in-hospital operational delays (26 percent of cases) or payer-related issues (7 percent of cases).
The study concluded cost reduction efforts surrounding length of stay should focus on improving transitions between acute and post-acute care.
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