Inappropriate hospital admission and stay in university hospitals of Ahvaz in 2016

 Unnecessary admission and hospitalization lead to increased false length of stay, hospital costs, poor service delivery and increased hospital infections. The purpose of this study was to determine the number of unnecessary admissions and hospitalizations in selected wards of educational hospitals.

This cross-sectional study was performed in 2016. A total of 246 patients were randomly selected from the departments of urology, ENT, and general surgery, and the required information was collected through a valid AEP protocol. This protocol includes two parts of the criteria for essential admission and essential hospitalization.

 According to the 246 patients, the appropriate evaluation protocol regarding the necessity of admission and hospitalization showed that 7.3% of admissions and 15.9% (255 days) of 1322 hospitalizations. They were unnecessary.

 As unnecessary admissions increase, the number of unnecessary hospitalizations increases as well. Unnecessary admissions and hospitalizations can be controlled by management techniques such as using patient admission protocols, bed management and patient discharge planning.