Appropriate utilization of hospital beds in internal medicine: evaluation in a tertiary care hospital.

Aim: To assess the appropriateness of utilization of beds in the internal medicine department of a university hospital.

Methods: The appropriateness of hospital stay was evaluated using the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol. A random sample of 402 days of stay was assessed.

Results: One hundred and thirty-nine days of stay (34.6%) were classified as inappropriate. The inappropriate stays were mostly secondary to hospital-related factors. The two major factors for inappropriate stays were 'inappropriate timing/delay in diagnostic procedures/consultations' (27%) and 'delay in obtaining test results' (27%). None of the factors including age, gender, residence and inpatient period was significantly related to inappropriate stay in univariate analysis.

Conclusion: This study indicated that a significant portion of stays were inappropriate. Efforts to decrease particularly hospital-related factors associated with inappropriate stay are needed.