Association of length of stay and readmission rate among schizophrenic patients in Nakhon Phanom Psychiatric Hospital, Thailand

Abstract

To study the relationship between length of stay and readmission in Nakhon Phanom Psychiatric Hospital, and study factors associated with readmission. This study is a case control study, by a case group of 91 cases from schizophrenic patients who return to admission in hospital within 90 days, and a control group is a total of 100 cases, reviewed from medical records in a past 1-year from Jan 1, 2009 to Dec 31, 2009. This study was analyzed by descriptive statistics; used logistic regression analysis for analyzing factors associated with readmission. This study found that gender characteristic: consisted of male more than female (89.01%, 10.99%), the most common age range was 30-39 years (41.36%), single status was accounted for 77.48%, 53.40% was primary school education with nonoccupation of 48.32%, most of birthplaces is Nakhon Phanom Province (48.16%), and diagnosed with schizophrenia paranoid type of 92.14%. The average length of stay of readmission group was 16.27 days which was less than those non-readmission group (21.10 days) with different statistical significant (p <.001), and factors associated with readmission included gender, age, occupation, length of stay, and the number of readmissions (p<.05) Length of stay in hospitals affected readmission and return to treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Preparedness in hospitals and in communities before discharges is very important to increase community stay and to reduce the chance of return to treatment or readmission of schizophrenic patients.