Hospital length of stay throughout bed pathways and factors affecting this time: A non-concurrent cohort study of Colombia COVID-19 patients and an unCoVer network project.

Publisher: Public Library of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101285081 Publication Model: eCollection Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1932-6203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19326203 NLM ISO Abbreviation: PLoS One Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science

COVID-19*/epidemiology; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Length of Stay ; Cohort Studies ; Colombia/epidemiology ; Intensive Care Units ; Hospitals ; Retrospective Studies

Predictions of hospital beds occupancy depends on hospital admission rates and the length of stay (LoS) according to bed type (general ward -GW- and intensive care unit -ICU- beds). The objective of this study was to describe the LoS of COVID-19 hospital patients in Colombia during 2020-2021. Accelerated failure time models were used to estimate the LoS distribution according to each bed type and throughout each bed pathway. Acceleration factors and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to measure the effect on LoS of the outcome, sex, age, admission period during the epidemic (i.e., epidemic waves, peaks or valleys, and before/after vaccination period), and patients geographic origin. Most of the admitted COVID-19 patients occupied just a GW bed. Recovered patients spent more time in the GW and ICU beds than deceased patients. Men had longer LoS than women. In general, the LoS increased with age. Finally, the LoS varied along epidemic waves. It was lower in epidemic valleys than peaks, and decreased after vaccinations began in Colombia. Our study highlights the necessity of analyzing local data on hospital admission rates and LoS to design strategies to prioritize hospital beds resources during the current and future pandemics.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 Ruiz Galvis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

BMC Infect Dis. 2021 Jul 22;21(1):700. (PMID: 34294037)
Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 Nov-Dec;38:101746. (PMID: 33353596)
JAMA. 2022 Jan 25;327(4):319-320. (PMID: 34935863)
BMJ Open. 2021 Nov 18;11(11):e055630. (PMID: 34794999)
Front Public Health. 2020 Nov 11;8:582706. (PMID: 33262969)
J Clin Transl Res. 2021 Jun 05;7(3):377-385. (PMID: 34239994)
Clin Chim Acta. 2020 Aug;507:161-163. (PMID: 32333860)
Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob. 2021 Sep 14;20(1):66. (PMID: 34521428)
Front Vet Sci. 2020 Dec 11;7:596391. (PMID: 33363234)
PLoS One. 2022 Jan 14;17(1):e0261216. (PMID: 35030181)
Lancet Respir Med. 2020 May;8(5):475-481. (PMID: 32105632)
Front Public Health. 2020 Dec 08;8:585850. (PMID: 33425835)
BMC Health Serv Res. 2021 Jun 9;21(1):566. (PMID: 34107928)
Vaccines (Basel). 2020 Nov 03;8(4):. (PMID: 33153096)
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Oct 17;17(20):. (PMID: 33080869)
JAMA. 2020 May 26;323(20):2052-2059. (PMID: 32320003)
BMC Med. 2020 Sep 3;18(1):270. (PMID: 32878619)
J Crit Care. 2017 Feb;37:270-276. (PMID: 27612678)
Front Public Health. 2023 Mar 29;11:1139379. (PMID: 37151581)
JAMA. 2022 Feb 8;327(6):583-584. (PMID: 34967859)
J Stat Softw. 2016 May 12;70:. (PMID: 29593450)
Lancet. 2021 Feb 27;397(10276):777-778. (PMID: 33607000)
Eur Heart J. 2020 May 14;41(19):1821-1829. (PMID: 32383763)

Date Created: 20230726 Date Completed: 20230728 Latest Revision: 20230729

20231215

PMC10370719

10.1371/journal.pone.0278429

37494381