Objectives: To review published data from Spanish hospitals in which comparisons had been made between the mean length of stay in patients admitted to acute geriatric units (AGU) and those admitted to other departments using the diagnosis-related groups (DRG) classification system and to describe our own experience.
Material and methods: The Spanish reports collected in a previous systematic review were reviewed. The case mix of our hospital was added by analyzing episodes in patients older than 74 years old discharged during a 24-month period and included in the most frequent DRGs. The length of stay in patients admitted to the AGU was compared with that in the remaining medical departments in the hospital and with the standard average stay in the corresponding autonomous region.
Results: Data were obtained from five Spanish general hospitals. The comparison revealed that the mean length of stay in the AGU was 8-19% shorter than that of similar patients in the other medical departments of the same hospitals. In one hospital, the reduction in the mean length of stay was 21% in patients older than 80 years. In three of the four hospitals where comparisons with the standard were performed, the mean length of stay in the AGU was lower for most of the DRGs, showing reductions of 7-9%.
Conclusions: These results allow us to conclude that, based on the commonly used patient classification and coding system, Spanish AGUs are more efficient than the remaining medical services in the acute hospitalization of elderly patients in our setting.