Hospital Length of Stay and Readmission for Individuals Diagnosed With Schizophrenia: Are They Related? Summary

Pan-Canadian data show relatively high rates of readmission and declining lengths of stay (LOS) among individuals hospitalized for mental illness. In this Analysis in Brief the relationship between hospital readmissions and LOS was examined for individuals aged 15 to 65 years who were diagnosed with schizophrenia in an initial episode of hospitalization. The investigation revealed that shorter initial hospital stays were related to higher rates of readmission. A relationship was also found between initial LOS and the number of days until readmission to hospital for individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. Individuals whose initial hospital stays were longer had longer intervals between hospitalizations. This association was observed for short-, mediumand longer-term readmissions, but in the case of both the likelihood of readmission and time to readmission, the relationship was most pronounced for short-term (or 30-day) readmissions.