PMID- 7719670
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 19950522
LR  - 20190512
IS  - 1353-4505 (Print)
IS  - 1353-4505 (Linking)
VI  - 6
IP  - 4
DP  - 1994 Dec
TI  - How many days of hospitalization for an appendectomy?
PG  - 347-52
AB  - The length of stay (LOS) of a surgical procedure is influenced both by the real 
      need for medical and nursing care of the patient and also by the practice style 
      of each unit, which can include unjustified stays. The aim of this work was to 
      estimate the appropriate LOS for appendectomy and its differences with the LOS 
      observed in practice. Two hundred and forty-nine medical records (249 admission 
      days and 1447 successive stays) for patients over 6 years old who had had an 
      appendectomy in 1992 were classified by Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) and 
      reviewed using the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol. 1.6% of admission days 
      and 31.7% of successive stays were assessed inappropriate. The appropriate LOS 
      for appendectomy was 4.7 days as opposed to 6.8 days of observed LOS. For the DRG 
      167 (76.3% of the sample) appropriate LOS was 3.4 days (observed LOS 4.9 days). 
      These results suggest the existence of an important proportion of avoidable 
      hospital stays and provides a simple and low cost methodology for assessing the 
      suitability of local hospitalization practices.
FAU - Martinez-Mas, E
AU  - Martinez-Mas E
AD  - General Surgery Unit, Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Valencia, Spain.
FAU - Peiro, S
AU  - Peiro S
FAU - Meneu, R
AU  - Meneu R
FAU - Rosello-Perez, M L
AU  - Rosello-Perez ML
FAU - Portella, E
AU  - Portella E
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - England
TA  - Int J Qual Health Care
JT  - International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International 
      Society for Quality in Health Care
JID - 9434628
SB  - IM
CIN - Int J Qual Health Care. 2001 Aug;13(4):341-3, author reply 345-6. PMID: 11560355
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Age Factors
MH  - Aged
MH  - *Appendectomy/classification/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Child
MH  - Comorbidity
MH  - Diagnosis-Related Groups
MH  - Female
MH  - Hospitals/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - Humans
MH  - Length of Stay/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Regional Health Planning
MH  - Retrospective Studies
MH  - Spain
EDAT- 1994/12/01 00:00
MHDA- 1994/12/01 00:01
CRDT- 1994/12/01 00:00
PHST- 1994/12/01 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1994/12/01 00:01 [medline]
PHST- 1994/12/01 00:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1093/intqhc/6.4.347 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Int J Qual Health Care. 1994 Dec;6(4):347-52. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/6.4.347.