Reducing Hospital Lengths of Stay: A Five-Year Study

Hospital length of stay reduction is an important mechanism for improving the outcomes and efficiency of care. This study evaluated the impact of length of stay reduction in the hospitals of Syracuse, New York. Between 2015 and 2020, length of stay reduction saved 7106 inpatient days for adult medicine, and 10,605 patient days for adult surgery in the hospitals. At a conservative late stay rate of $600 per day, $4,263,600 was eliminated for adult medicine and $6,363,000 was eliminated for adult surgery between 2015 and 2020. The study data suggested that the numbers of days saved were the greatest for patients with Major and Extreme severity of illness. At the community level, length of stay reduction can support the efforts of health care providers to free inpatient capacity for patients with Coronavirus and other conditions. It can also generate the efficiency needed to reimburse the costs of care.