Pulse
Lengthy hospital stays a thing of the past?
CMAJ 2000;163(4):436
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Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) indicate that the average length of a hospital stay in Canada dropped by more than 5% between 1994/95 and 1997/98, falling from 7.4 days to 7.0 days.
The age-standardized discharge rate (a measure of Canadians' in-patient use of hospitals) fell by 13.8%, from 11 499 discharges per 100 000 population in 1994/95 to 9913 per 100 000 population in 1997/98. When combined, these 2 figures point to a 15% decrease in total patient days between 1994/95 and 1997/98 (see figure).
All jurisdictions except the Northwest Territories experienced a decrease in discharge rates between 1996/97 and 1997/98, with Ontario showing the greatest decrease (5.3%). In 1997/98, the highest discharge rates per 100 000 population were found in New Brunswick (14 304), Saskatchewan (14 171) and the NWT (13 937), while Ontario's rate was the lowest — 9530 per 100 000 population.
Women accounted for slightly more than half (51.1%) of nonpregnancy and childbirth-related hospitalizations in 1997/98. Heart disease and stroke were the leading cause of hospitalization for both males (20.5%) and females (15.1%), followed by digestive diseases (13.1% of hospitalized women, 12.6% of men).
In 1997/98, patients 65 and older accounted for 34.7% of all hospitalizations, and stayed in hospital an average of 10.5 days. In contrast, adults between the ages of 20 and 64 stayed an average of 5.4 days. Hospital stays for children and teenagers lasted an average of 4 days. — Shelley Martin, martins@cma.ca
© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
