Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare (Apr 2022)

Hospital Length of Stay and Related Factors for COVID-19 Inpatients Among the Four Southern Regions Under the Proposed Southern Business Unit of Saudi Arabia

  • Alharbi AA,
  • Alqumaizi KI,
  • Bin Hussain I,
  • AlHarbi NS,
  • Alqahtani A,
  • Alzawad W,
  • Suhail HM,
  • Alamir MI,
  • Alharbi MA,
  • Alzamanan H

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 825 – 836

Abstract

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Abdullah A Alharbi,1 Khalid I Alqumaizi,2 Ibrahim Bin Hussain,3– 5 Nasser S AlHarbi,6 Abdulmalik Alqahtani,7 Wala Alzawad,8 Hussam M Suhail,9 Mohammed I Alamir,9 Mohammed A Alharbi,9 Hamad Alzamanan10 1Family and Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan City, Jazan, Saudi Arabia; 2Family Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, AlMaarefa University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 3Department of Pediatrics, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Al Faisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 5Southern Business Unit, Health Holding Company Project, Healthcare Transformation, Vision Realization Office, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 6Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 7Ophthalmology Department, Prince Sultan Medical Military City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 8Eastern Business Unit, Health Holding Company Project, Healthcare Transformation, Vision Realization Office, Ministry of Health, Khobar, Saudi Arabia; 9Faculty of Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan City, Saudi Arabia; 10The Vision Realization Office (VRO), Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Abdullah A Alharbi, Family and Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan City, 45142, Jazan, Saudi Arabia, Tel +966556966880, Email [email protected]: To assess the length of stay (LoS) variation for COVID-19 inpatients among the four regions of the Southern Business Unit (SBU).Methods: This is a comparative retrospective study of the LoS of COVID-19 inpatients in the four regions of the SBU in the KSA. Data was collected from the Ministry of Health (MoH) in all hospitals in the SBU. Participants were all patients admitted with confirmed COVID-19 between March 2020 and February 2021. Variables included region (variable of interest), demographics, comorbidities, and complications. Multilinear regression was performed to control for any factors that might have had an association with LoS.Results: The mean LoS of the total sample was 10 days and Bisha (the reference) was 7 days. Compared to Bisha, LoS in Jazan was 34% longer, in Najran 62% longer, and Aseer 40% longer. We observed that other factors also had an association with LoS, compared to Bisha, compared to the references, Saudi patients had a 15% shorter stay; admission to ICU increased LoS by 57%; patients who died during hospitalization had a 39% shorter LoS; the complications from COVID-19 of acute kidney injury and ARDS increased LoS by 22% and 48% respectively.Conclusion: After statistically controlling for confounders, this study reveals that LoS was significantly impacted by region in the SBU in the KSA. We recommend that further study be conducted to illuminate the underlying causes of this variation which may be organizational or structural to ensure high quality of care, access to care, and equity of resources throughout all regions of the SBU in accordance with the new Model of Care in Vision 2030.Keywords: COVID-19, length of stay, Southern Business Unit, Health Holding Company, KSA

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