LENGTH OF HOSPITAL STAY IN PEDIATRICS EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT AND THE ASSOCIATED FACTORS AT SAINT PAUL HOSPITAL MILLENNIUM MEDICAL COLLEGE

Abstract

Abstract Background: One of the effective indicators for determining the efficiency and optimal use of hospital resources is the hospital length of stay of patients. Prolonged length of stay can impact patients’ outcome, parental financial status, hospital costs, and overall performance of health care facility. Despite this fact, there are limited data regarding pediatric emergency length of stay and associated factors. [1,12] Objective: This study determines length of hospital stay and the associated factors in Pediatric Emergency Department, Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Ethiopia. Method and Material: An institution-based cross-sectional study has been conducted in the Emergency Department of Saint Paul’s Hospital by using a structured questionnaire. The study period which is classified as pre-intervention (June 20- July 17, 2022) and Post intervention period(between July18-September 20, 2022) based on time of System Bottlenecks Focused Reform project implantation in Emergency. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0 to present the descriptive statistics of variables affecting length of hospital stay and identify its determinants using logistic regression model. Results - In pre-intervention period, 79.5 %of the patients stayed above 24 hours and, 64.9% stayed above 24 hours in the post intervention period. Presence of co morbidity and having respiratory co morbidity were found to be significantly associated with longer emergency length of stay. Lack of early decision making, unavailability of inpatient beds, decision to treat patient in the ER by the primary treating physician, delay in collection of investigations and waiting for sub-specialty consultation are the main statistically significant determinant factors for a prolonged length of stay. Conclusion This research has shown that the proportion of prolonged pediatrics emergency department length of stay was high despite initiation of interventions. Therefore, all planned interventions need to be implemented at full scale by emphasizing the aforementioned associated factors. Keywords: Length of stay, Pediatrics, Emergency, Logistic regression