Association of Length of Stay and Readmission Rate among Schizophrenic Patients in Nakhon Phanom Psychiatric Hospital, Nakhon Phanom, Thailand

Abstract

The objectives are to study the relationship between length of stay and readmission among schizophrenic patients in Nakhon Phanom Psychiatric Hospital, and to 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 of 100 cases from inpatients with schizophrenia who not re-admitted in 90 days, reviewed from medical records from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2009. The study was analyzed by descriptive statistics, and used logistic regression analysis for analyzing factors associated with readmission. A total of samples was 191, found that male more than female (89.0196, 10.99%), the most common age range was 30-39 years (41.36%), single status was a’ccounted for 77.48%, 53.40% was primary school education with non-occupation of 48.32%, most of birthplaces is Nakhon Phanom Province (48.16%), and most 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 (2 1.10 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 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 readmission of schizophrenic patients.