TITLE:
The Impact of Severity of Illness at the Community Level
AUTHORS:
Ronald Lagoe, Louise Pernisi, Shelly Littau
KEYWORDS:
Hospitalization, Hospital Lengths of Stay, Severity of Illness
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.5 No.12,
December
24,
2015
ABSTRACT: This study evaluated the impact of severity of illness on hospital inpatients within the metropolitan area of Syracuse, New York, during January-December 2014. It demonstrated that patients with Major and Extreme severity of illness generated a substantial majority of the excess lengths of stay and adverse outcomes during this period. These patients were associated with 77 percent of the excess days for adult medicine and 100 percent of the excess days for adult surgery. They also generated hospital readmission rates that were at least 50 percent higher than those of patients with Minor and Moderate severity of illness. They were also associated with more than 75 percent of inpatients with the most frequent post admission complications. The data suggested that these populations need to be a focus of efforts to improve hospital efficiency and outcomes.