Defensive Medicine as a Cause of Prolonged Hospital Stays

Prolonged hospital stay refers to the length of stay in days beyond what is estimated according to the statistical parameters of each institution. Studies have shown that up to 15% of hospitalization days may be unnecessary. While various factors prolong hospital stays, defensive medicine currently impacts patient length of stay. This refers to the use of unnecessary diagnostic and therapeutic procedures or, conversely, the avoidance of patient care or the performance of procedures, with the explicit purpose of avoiding malpractice lawsuits. This implicitly implies a breach of medical ethics. This problem has implications such as damage to the doctor-patient relationship, impairment of clinical practice, and, in this case, an increase in hospital length of stay