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. 2023 Feb 20;11(4):627.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare11040627.

Time-to-Event Analysis of Factors Influencing Delay in Discharge from a Subacute Complex Discharge Unit during the First Year of the Pandemic (2020) in an Irish Tertiary Centre Hospital

Nithya Rajendran  1 , Puteri Maisarah Rameli  1 , Keneilwe Malomo  2 , Declan Byrne  2 , Joseph Browne  2 , Ontefetse Ntlholang  2
Affiliations

Time-to-Event Analysis of Factors Influencing Delay in Discharge from a Subacute Complex Discharge Unit during the First Year of the Pandemic (2020) in an Irish Tertiary Centre Hospital

Nithya Rajendran et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Our study aimed to analyse delaying factors amongst patients with a length of stay (LOS) > 15 days during the COVID-19 pandemic using time-to-event analysis. A total of 390 patients were admitted between March 2020-February 2021 to the subacute complex discharge unit in St James's Hospital: 326 (83.6%) were >65 years of age and 233 (59.7%) were female. The median (IQR) age was 79 (70-86) years with a median (IQR) of 19.4 (10-41) days. A total of 237 (60.7%) events were uncensored, with LOS > 15 days, of which 138 (58.2%) were female and 124 (52.32%) had >4 comorbidities; 153 (39.2%) were censored into LOS ≤ 15 days, and death occurred in 19 (4.8%). Kaplan-Meier's plot compared factors causing a delay in discharge to the single factors: age, gender, and multimorbidity. A multivariate Cox regression analysis adjusted to age, gender, and multimorbidity predicted factors affecting LOS. Further research is required to explore multimorbidity as a risk factor for mortality in patients with prolonged LOS within a complex discharge unit and target gender-specific frailty measures to achieve high-quality patient management.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cox regression analysis; Kaplan–Meier analysis; complex discharge unit; delayed transfers of care; discharge delay; length of stay; pandemic; time-to-event analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan–Meier curves for (A) age, (B) gender, (C) multimorbidity, (D) complications arising from primary diagnoses, (E) healthcare-associated infections, (F) frailty or falls necessitating integrated rehabilitation, (G) patient-centred needs, (H) community services contributing to delays in discharge during the first year of the pandemic in complex discharge unit. Figure legend: Each figure exhibits the overall delay in the length of stay (LOS) in number of days, with the numbers of patients at risk respectively below the curve.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan–Meier curves for (A) age, (B) gender, (C) multimorbidity, (D) complications arising from primary diagnoses, (E) healthcare-associated infections, (F) frailty or falls necessitating integrated rehabilitation, (G) patient-centred needs, (H) community services contributing to delays in discharge during the first year of the pandemic in complex discharge unit. Figure legend: Each figure exhibits the overall delay in the length of stay (LOS) in number of days, with the numbers of patients at risk respectively below the curve.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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