Social Factors Influencing Length of Hospital Stay of Schizophrenic Patients

BRORL discharge from hospital.Some patients discharged themselves against medical advice; their subsequent history is not recorded, but it is clear that their early discharge could only spoil the effective prediction of long-stay cases-the group in which prediction was best.The possibility that short-stay cases might have been readmitted to hospital within 200 days of their entry into the survey was considered because it might be thought more appropriate to classify such cases among the intermediate group staying 100-199 days.There were, in fact, only four such cases, a number unlikely to alter results in any significant way.No knowledge has yet been gained of numbers readmitted later than 200 days from their entry into the survey, nor of patients' health after an interval of years: this may follow in time.The two notable advantages of considering duration of hospital stay are that it can be determined accurately in days, and that this provides a well-defined measure of an economic burden shouldered by the community.