Patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital: a cross sectional study
Background Delayed discharge for non-clinical reasons also affects patients in need of palliative care. Moreover, the number of people dying in hospitals has been increasing in recent years. Our aim was to describe characteristics of patients who died during prolonged stay, in comparison with the re...
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PeerJ Inc.
2022-06-01
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| author | Amada Pellico-López Manuel Herrero-Montes David Cantarero Prieto Ana Fernández-Feito Joaquin Cayon-De las Cuevas Paula Parás-Bravo María Paz-Zulueta |
| author_facet | Amada Pellico-López Manuel Herrero-Montes David Cantarero Prieto Ana Fernández-Feito Joaquin Cayon-De las Cuevas Paula Parás-Bravo María Paz-Zulueta |
| author_sort | Amada Pellico-López |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background Delayed discharge for non-clinical reasons also affects patients in need of palliative care. Moreover, the number of people dying in hospitals has been increasing in recent years. Our aim was to describe characteristics of patients who died during prolonged stay, in comparison with the rest of patients with delayed discharge, in terms of length of hospital stay, patient characteristics and the context of care. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study at a high complexity public hospital in Northern Spain (2007–2015) was conducted. To compare the differential characteristics of the groups of patients died during delayed discharge with the rest, Student’s T test and Pearson’s chi-square test (χ2) were used. Results A total of 198 patients died (6.57% of the total), with a mean total stay of 27.45 days and a prolonged stay of 10.69 days. Mean age 77.27 years. These were highly complex cases, 77.79% resided in the urban area, were admitted urgently (95.45%), to internal medicine or oncology wards, and the most common diagnosis was pneumonia. In people with terminal illness, clinicians can better identify when therapeutic possibilities are exhausted and acute hospitalization is not an adequate resource for their needs. Living in an urban area with the availability of palliative care hospital beds is related to the decision to die in hospital. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:55:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-894aa7755a9a46cb87a5eb9cb4cd1639 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:55:17Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
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| spelling | doaj.art-894aa7755a9a46cb87a5eb9cb4cd16392023-12-03T10:06:22ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592022-06-0110e1359610.7717/peerj.13596Patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital: a cross sectional studyAmada Pellico-López0Manuel Herrero-Montes1David Cantarero Prieto2Ana Fernández-Feito3Joaquin Cayon-De las Cuevas4Paula Parás-Bravo5María Paz-Zulueta6Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, SpainDepartamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, SpainIDIVAL, Research Group of Health Economics and Health Services Management–Research Institute Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, SpainFacultad de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Departamento de Medicina, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, SpainIDIVAL, Grupo de Investigación en Derecho Sanitario y Bioética, GRIDES, Santander, SpainDepartamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, SpainDepartamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, SpainBackground Delayed discharge for non-clinical reasons also affects patients in need of palliative care. Moreover, the number of people dying in hospitals has been increasing in recent years. Our aim was to describe characteristics of patients who died during prolonged stay, in comparison with the rest of patients with delayed discharge, in terms of length of hospital stay, patient characteristics and the context of care. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study at a high complexity public hospital in Northern Spain (2007–2015) was conducted. To compare the differential characteristics of the groups of patients died during delayed discharge with the rest, Student’s T test and Pearson’s chi-square test (χ2) were used. Results A total of 198 patients died (6.57% of the total), with a mean total stay of 27.45 days and a prolonged stay of 10.69 days. Mean age 77.27 years. These were highly complex cases, 77.79% resided in the urban area, were admitted urgently (95.45%), to internal medicine or oncology wards, and the most common diagnosis was pneumonia. In people with terminal illness, clinicians can better identify when therapeutic possibilities are exhausted and acute hospitalization is not an adequate resource for their needs. Living in an urban area with the availability of palliative care hospital beds is related to the decision to die in hospital.https://peerj.com/articles/13596.pdfLength of stayPatient dischargeMortalityPalliative carePatient transfer |
| spellingShingle | Amada Pellico-López Manuel Herrero-Montes David Cantarero Prieto Ana Fernández-Feito Joaquin Cayon-De las Cuevas Paula Parás-Bravo María Paz-Zulueta Patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital: a cross sectional study PeerJ Length of stay Patient discharge Mortality Palliative care Patient transfer |
| title | Patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital: a cross sectional study |
| title_full | Patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital: a cross sectional study |
| title_fullStr | Patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital: a cross sectional study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital: a cross sectional study |
| title_short | Patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital: a cross sectional study |
| title_sort | patient deaths during the period of prolonged stay in cases of delayed discharge for nonclinical reasons at a university hospital a cross sectional study |
| topic | Length of stay Patient discharge Mortality Palliative care Patient transfer |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/13596.pdf |
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