Table 1.
Characteristics of hospital and long-term care wards in each cluster
| All n = 1856 | Low medical acuity/high ADL n = 175 | Medium medical acuity/high ADL n = 340 | Medium medical acuity/low ADL n = 461 | High medical acuity/low ADL n = 409 | Mixed n = 471 | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean ± SD or n (%) | Mean ± SD or n (%) | Mean ± SD or n (%) | Mean ± SD or n (%) | Mean ± SD or n (%) | Mean ± SD or n (%) | ||
| Characteristics of hospital | |||||||
| Number of beds | 121.9 ± 81.0 | 124.5 ± 98.5 | 109.5 ± 77.6 | 119.1 ± 77.2 | 118.3 ± 68.4 | 135.8 ± 88.0 | < 0.001† |
| Other wards in the hospital | |||||||
| General ward | 1121 (60.4%) | 102 (58.3%) | 200 (58.8%) | 242 (52.5%) | 289 (70.7%) | 288 (61.1%) | < 0.001‡ |
| Sub-acute ward | 263 (14.2%) | 20 (11.4%) | 47 (13.8%) | 60 (13.0%) | 75 (18.3%) | 61 (13.0%) | < 0.001‡ |
| Rehabilitation ward | 372 (20.0%) | 36 (20.6%) | 61 (17.9%) | 108 (23.4%) | 79 (19.3%) | 88 (18.7%) | < 0.001‡ |
| Community integrated care ward | 46 (2.5%) | 0 (0%) | 8 (2.4%) | 13 (2.8%) | 15 (3.7%) | 10 (2.1%) | < 0.001‡ |
| Characteristics of ward | |||||||
| Number of beds | 45.1 ± 13.0 | 40.9 ± 11.2 | 43.7 ± 11.8 | 45.1 ± 15.5 | 45.3 ± 12.3 | 47.5 ± 11.9 | < 0.001† |
| Average length of stay | 240.2 ± 144.0 | 154.6 ± 107.3 | 216.6 ± 138.1 | 295.7 ± 152.6 | 239.8 ± 128.9 | 229.1 ± 142.2 | < 0.001† |
| Bed occupancy rate (%) | 89.2 ± 13.5 | 83.9 ± 12.8 | 88.4 ± 13.6 | 91.5 ± 13.0 | 91.8 ± 13.1 | 87.4 ± 13.6 | < 0.001† |
| Hospitalization basic rate | |||||||
| I (20:1 of patient to nurse ratio) | 1087 (58.6%) | 6 (3.4%) | 275 (80.9%) | 383 (83.1%) | 351 (85.8%) | 72 (15.3%) | < 0.001‡ |
| II (25:1 of patient to nurse ratio) | 769 (41.4%) | 169 (96.6%) | 65 (19.1%) | 78 (16.9%) | 58 (14.2%) | 399 (84.7%) | |
| Number of FTE nurses | 30.9 ± 9.7 | 31.0 ± 12.0 | 32.4 ± 12.6 | 31.4 ± 8.4 | 32.0 ± 8.3 | 28.4 ± 7.9 | < 0.001† |
| Number of FTE care workers | 26.4 ± 8.4 | 25.5 ± 9.1 | 26.3 ± 8.3 | 27.4 ± 8.1 | 26.7 ± 8.6 | 25.4 ± 8.1 | 0.002† |
| Number of admitted patients in a month | 8.5 ± 13.5 | 13.6 ± 15.6 | 10.1 ± 18.8 | 6.0 ± 8.0 | 8.4 ± 14.6 | 8.0 ± 10.7 | < 0.001† |
| Place before admission | |||||||
| Other ward in same hospital (%) | 59.3 ± 44.0 | 56.3 ± 44.4 | 54.2 ± 45.2 | 51.5 ± 44.7 | 70.5 ± 40.7 | 62.1 ± 43.0 | < 0.001† |
| Other hospital (%) | 21.7 ± 31.7 | 17.5 ± 27.5 | 19.2 ± 27.5 | 28.4 ± 35.5 | 19.0 ± 31.6 | 20.9 ± 31.4 | < 0.001† |
| Long-term care facility (%) | 4.9 ± 13.8 | 3.0 ± 8.4 | 4.8 ± 13.2 | 6.2 ± 17.3 | 3.9 ± 11.6 | 5.1 ± 13.9 | 0.054† |
| Home (%) | 13.8 ± 24.0 | 22.9 ± 30.7 | 21.6 ± 29.5 | 13.3 ± 23.2 | 6.4 ± 15.4 | 11.4 ± 20.9 | < 0.001† |
| Other (%) | 0.3 ± 3.4 | 0.2 ± 2.6 | 0.2 ± 2.8 | 0.4 ± 4.2 | 0.1 ± 1.2 | 0.6 ± 4.6 | 0.309† |
| Number of discharged patients in a month | 8.2 ± 10.7 | 13.1 ± 10.7 | 9.9 ± 16.8 | 5.8 ± 5.5 | 7.8 ± 11.6 | 8.0 ± 6.7 | < 0.001† |
| Place after discharge | |||||||
| Other ward in same hospital (%) | 14.2 ± 23.4 | 10.4 ± 18.2 | 16.0 ± 25.1 | 15.3 ± 25.5 | 12.8 ± 22.2 | 14.6 ± 22.6 | 0.064† |
| Other hospital (%) | 11.8 ± 19.7 | 10.4 ± 15.3 | 13.0 ± 19.8 | 14.7 ± 24.5 | 8.7 ± 16.7 | 11.5 ± 17.7 | < 0.001† |
| Long-term care facility (%) | 14.5 ± 18.9 | 18.0 ± 18.2 | 12.9 ± 17.6 | 10.8 ± 19.8 | 12.6 ± 17.4 | 19.4 ± 21.1 | < 0.001† |
| Home (%) | 23.9 ± 26.7 | 48.1 ± 28.2 | 34.6 ± 29.5 | 16.1 ± 22.6 | 15.2 ± 20.7 | 22.2 ± 24.1 | < 0.001† |
| Death (%) | 34.9 ± 31.3 | 12.0 ± 20.8 | 22.4 ± 25.5 | 42.7 ± 33.9 | 50.2 ± 29.9 | 31.6 ± 27.4 | < 0.001† |
| Other (%) | 0.7 ± 5.7 | 1.0 ± 5.6 | 1.1 ± 8.6 | 0.5 ± 5.2 | 0.5 ± 3.7 | 0.6 ± 4.9 | 0.510† |
SD standard deviation, FTE full time equivalent
Percentages for each item were calculated after excluding missing values
†analysis of variance (ANOVA); ‡ chi-squared test