Abstract

Introduction

The psychiatric care paradigm has shifted towards community-centered models. Yet, prolonged hospitalizations are still a reality, with debated impact at healthcare systems and patients.

Objectives

This work aims to describe prolonged hospitalizations in acute psychiatric wards through patients’ sociodemographic and clinical data.

Methods

We analyzed a national hospitalization database that contained all hospitalization episodes registered in Portuguese public hospitals from 2008 to 2015. All episodes with a primary diagnosis of mental disorder defined as ICD-9-CM codes 290.x-319.x were included. Prolonged hospitalizations were defined as having a LoS ≥ P97.5; LOS ≥180 days or LOS ≥1 year. Age, sex, lengh of stay, in-hospital mortality were analysed.

Results

The LoS ≥ P97.5(≥62 days) group comprised 3911 hospitalizations (2.3% of all psychiatric hospitalizations) and 1755 patients. The median LOS was 81 days and the mean age was 51 years. Sex was equally distributed, though a higher frequency of male patients was found on the ≥180 days (n=364) and ≥ 1 year (n=121) groups. Psychotic disorders were the main diagnosis at discharge (n= 1769, 45.2%), followed by mood disorders (n=1057, 27.0%) and dementia (n=451, 11.5%). In-hospital mortality increased in the higher LoS groups (1.1%; 4.4%; 9.1%, respectively).

Conclusions

Overall, middle aged patients with psychotic disorders represent most of the prolonged hospitalizations occurring in acute psychiatric wards. Community-based programs require further development to meet the existing needs.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Details

Title
Prolonged length of stay in acute psychiatric wards: A descriptive study
Author
Lopes, L 1 ; Gonçalves-Pinho, M 2 ; Pereira, S 1 ; Ribeiro, J P 3 ; Freitas, A 4 

 Department Of Psychiatry And Mental Health, Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia e Espinho, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal 
 Cintesis – Center For Health Technology And Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; Department Of Psychiatry And Mental Health, Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega e Sousa, Penafiel, Portugal, Penafiel, Portugal; Department Of Community, Information And Health Decision Sciences (medcids), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal, Porto, Portugal 
 Department Of Psychiatry And Mental Health, Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega e Sousa, Penafiel, Portugal, Penafiel, Portugal 
 Cintesis – Center For Health Technology And Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; Department Of Community, Information And Health Decision Sciences (medcids), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal, Porto, Portugal 
Pages
S121-S122
Publication year
2021
Publication date
Apr 2021
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISSN
09249338
e-ISSN
17783585
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2560877915
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.