International Medical Travelers, Length of Stay, and the Continuum of Care
| Autor: | Tricia J. Johnson, Siriporn Satjapot, Andrew N. Garman |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2011 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male medicine.medical_specialty Health (social science) Multivariate analysis Leadership and Management education Severity of Illness Index Young Adult Severity of illness medicine Humans Continuum of care Care Planning health care economics and organizations Aged Quality of Health Care Retrospective Studies Academic Medical Centers Travel business.industry Health Policy Continuity of Patient Care Length of Stay Middle Aged United States Socioeconomic Factors Family medicine Geographic origin Female Payment sources business Demography |
| Zdroj: | Quality Management in Health Care. 20:76-83 |
| ISSN: | 1063-8628 |
| Popis: | PURPOSE In this study, we assess whether length of stay (LOS) is associated with patient geographic origin and whether payment source for international patients explains differences in LOS. METHODS We used a retrospective case-control study to compare inbound international patients coming to the United States and domestic patients, who were admitted to academic medical centers (AMCs) between October 2005 and September 2008. International patients were matched to domestic patients on the basis of age, gender, AMC, admission status, severity of illness (SOI), and Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Group. RESULTS International patients stayed significantly longer than domestic patients, with an average LOS of 6.9 days (SD = 14.0) compared with 6.0 days (SD = 5.3) for domestic patients (P < .001). There was no difference in LOS between patients with international commercial and international self-pay payment sources (P = .108). Results of the multivariate analysis showed that international patients with extreme SOI stayed 21% longer than otherwise similar domestic patients with extreme SOI (P = .012). CONCLUSIONS The most complex international patients coming to US AMCs have substantially longer LOS than the most complex domestic patients, even after controlling for demographic characteristics, and type of condition. More research is needed to understand the underlying drivers of these differences. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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