Determinants of the Length of Stay in Stroke Patients

OBJECTIVES: The study objective was to identify the factors that influence the length of stay (LOS) in hospital for stroke patients and to provide data for managing hospital costs by managing the LOS. METHODS: This study used data from the Discharge Injury Survey of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which included 17,364 cases from 2005 to 2008. RESULT: The LOS for stroke, cerebral infarction, intracerebral hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage was 18.6, 15.0, 28.9, and 25.3 days, respectively. Patients who underwent surgery had longer LOS. When patients were divided based on whether they had surgery, there was a 2.4-time difference in the LOS for patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage, 2.0-time difference for patients with cerebral infarction, and 1.4-time difference for patients with intracerebral hemorrhage. The emergency route of admission and other diagnosis increased LOS, whereas hypertension and diabetic mellitus reduced LOS. CONCLUSION: In the present rapidly changing hospital environments, hospitals approach an efficient policy for LOS, to maintain their revenues and quality of assessment. If LOS is used as the indicator of treatment expenses, there is a need to tackle factors that influence the LOS of stroke patients for each disease group who are divided based on whether surgery is performed or not for the proper management of the LOS.