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Effect of Pressure Ulcers on Length of Hospital Stay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2016

Nicholas Graves ,
Frances Birrell  and
Michael Whitby
Nicholas Graves*
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia
Frances Birrell
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Care Related Infection Surveillance and Prevention, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Wooloongabba, Queensland, Australia
Michael Whitby
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Care Related Infection Surveillance and Prevention, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Wooloongabba, Queensland, Australia
*
School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove QLD, 4059, Australia[email protected]
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Abstract

Objective:

To identify the independent effect of pressure ulcers on excess length of stay and control for all observable factors that may also contribute to excess length of stay. Hospitalized patients who develop a pressure ulcer during their hospital stay are at a greater risk for increased length of stay as compared with patients who do not.

Design:

Cross-sectional, observational study.

Setting:

Tertiary-care referral and teaching hospital in Australia.

Patients:

Two thousand hospitalized patients 18 years and older who had a minimum stay in the hospital of 1 night and admission to selected clinical units.

Methods:

Two thousand participants were randomly selected from 4,500 patients enrolled in a prospective survey conducted between October 2002 and January 2003. Quantile median robust regression was used to assess risk factors for excess length of hospital stay.

Results:

Having a pressure ulcer resulted in a median excess length of stay of 4.31 days. Twenty other variables were statistically significant at the 5% level in the final model.

Conclusions:

Pressure ulcers make a significant independent contribution to excess length of hospitalization beyond what might be expected based on admission diagnosis. However, our estimates were substantially lower than those currently used to make predictions of the economic costs of pressure ulcers; existing estimates may overstate the true economic cost.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , March 2005 , pp. 293 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2005

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