Institutional influence on length of stay in German forensic hospitals: a multilevel analysis of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Introduction: Scientific studies have focused on patient-related characteristics as predictors of length of stay in forensic psychiatry. However, little attention has been paid to the specificities of forensic psychiatric settings. This study aims to test whether differences in forensic admissions transcend individual factors by comparing length of stay between different psychiatric units, controlling for hospital characteristics and patient characteristics.

Methods: The dataset was derived from a forensic documentation system containing a wide range of information on forensic psychiatric patients. N = 594 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders discharged from 6 forensic hospitals in southern Germany were included in a linear mixed regression model. Linear mixed models were calculated, allowing for the simultaneous estimation of variance between patients and hospitals.

Results: The final regression model explained 49% of the total variance. The only statistically significant patient-related predictors were age at admission, education and severity of the index offence. Hospital differences explained 41% (ICC) of the variance in length of stay without finding a significant hospital effect in the data.

Discussion: Previous research has primarily analyzed predictors of length of stay in terms of individual patient characteristics. This work suggests that variables other than patient-related factors need to be considered when assessing the length of stay in forensic units. Further multi-center studies are needed to gain a better understanding of how forensic psychiatric hospitals and other institutional influences affect length of stay.