Length of hospital stay and survival of hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the second wave of the pandemic: A single centre retrospective study from Slovenia
Article Category: Original scientific article
Online veröffentlicht: 28. Sept. 2022
Seitenbereich: 201 - 208
Eingereicht: 30. Jan. 2022
Akzeptiert: 28. Juli 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2022-0027
Schlüsselwörter
© 2022 National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Background
As of writing, there are no publications pertaining to the prediction of COVID-19-related outcomes and length of stay in patients from Slovene hospitals.
Objectives
To evaluate the length of regular ward and ICU stays and assess the survival of COVID-19 patients to develop better prediction models to forecast hospital capacity and staffing demands in possible further pandemic peaks.
Methods
In this retrospective, single-site study we analysed the length of stay and survival of all patients, hospitalized due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at the peak of the second wave, between November 18th 2020 and January 27th 2021 at the University Clinic Golnik, Slovenia.
Results
Out of 407 included patients, 59% were male. The median length of stay on regular wards was 7.5 (IQR 5–13) days, and the median ICU length of stay was 6 (IQR 4–11) days. Age, male sex, and ICU stay were significantly associated with a higher risk of death. The probability of dying in 21 days at the regular ward was 14.4% (95% CI [10.9–18%]) and at the ICU it was 43.6% (95% CI [19.3-51.8%]).
Conclusion
The survival of COVID-19 is strongly affected by age, sex, and the fact that a patient had to be admitted to ICU, while the length of hospital bed occupancy is very similar across different demographic groups. Knowing the length of stay and admission rate to ICU is important for proper planning of resources during an epidemic.