Table 2.
Characteristics of unplanned hospital transfers.
| Total Transfers (n = 535) |
Transfers of Females (n = 375) | Transfers of Males (n = 159) | p-Value | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday of the hospital transfer * | |||||||
| Monday to Friday | 404 | (75.7%) | 283 | (75.5%) | 120 | (76.0%) | 0.9649 |
| Saturday and Sunday | 130 | (24.3%) | 92 | (24.5%) | 38 | (24.1%) | |
| Outcome of the hospital transfer * | |||||||
| ED visit with discharge to the NH | 195 | (36.9%) | 129 | (34.8%) | 66 | (42.0%) | 0.0937 |
| Hospital admission | 334 | (63.1%) | 242 | (65.2%) | 91 | (58.0%) | |
| Died during hospitalization | 42 | (12.6%) | 28 | (11.6%) | 14 | (15.4%) | 0.3505 |
| Length of hospitalization (days) *,# | |||||||
| Mean (SD) | 8.4 | (7.8) | 8.1 | (7.0) | 9.2 | (9.7) | |
| 1–4 | 95 | (31.4%) | 71 | (32.3%) | 23 | (28.1%) | 0.8045 |
| 5–9 | 123 | (40.6%) | 89 | (40.5%) | 34 | (41.5%) | |
| 10+ | 85 | (28.1%) | 60 | (27.3%) | 25 | (30.5%) | |
| Reason for hospital transfer * | |||||||
| Deterioration of health status (e.g., fever, infection, dyspnea, exsiccosis) | 188 | (35.1%) | 128 | (34.1%) | 60 | (37.7%) | <0.0001 |
| Fall, accident, injury | 179 | (33.5%) | 143 | (38.1%) | 36 | (22.6%) | |
| Psychiatric/neurologic conditions (e.g., challenging behavior, stroke) | 38 | (7.1%) | 21 | (5.6%) | 16 | (10.1%) | |
| Complications with catheter/tube (e.g., blood in urine (hematuria)) | 38 | (7.1%) | 11 | (2.9%) | 27 | (17.0%) | |
| Pain, not fall-induced | 33 | (6.2%) | 27 | (7.2%) | 6 | (3.8%) | |
| Others (e.g., bleedings, gastrointestinal symptoms) | 59 | (11.0%) | 45 | (12.0%) | 14 | (8.8%) | |
ED: Emergency department; NH: Nursing home; SD: Standard deviation. * Numbers differ due to missing values. # Only for hospital admissions.