Table 1.
Patient and hospital characteristics and unadjusted outcomes*
| Variable | Total n=18 802 | Cohorted† n=12 683 (67%) | Bedspaced‡ n=6119 (33%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patient characteristics | |||
| Hospital | |||
| 1 | 6723 (36) | 5114 (40) | 1609 (26) |
| 2 | 6293 (34) | 4092 (32) | 2201 (36) |
| 3 | 5786 (31) | 3477 (27) | 2309 (38) |
| Age, median (IQR) | 60 (45–74) | 60 (45–74) | 60 (46–73) |
| Female | 10 248 (55) | 6924 (55) | 3324 (54) |
| Race | |||
| Black | 11 428 (61) | 7782 (61) | 3646 (60) |
| White | 6411 (34) | 4247 (34) | 2164 (35) |
| Other§ | 963 (5) | 654 (5) | 309 (5) |
| Latinx | 621 (3) | 380 (3) | 241 (4) |
| Insurance | |||
| Private | 7792 (41) | 5258 (42) | 2534 (41) |
| Medicare | 7772 (41) | 5328 (42) | 2444 (40) |
| Medicaid | 1798 (10) | 1179 (9) | 619 (10) |
| Other¶ | 1440 (8) | 358 (3) | 209 (3) |
| Elixhauser comorbidity score, median (IQR) | 3 (2–5) | 3 (2–5) | 3 (2–5) |
| Any time spent in an intensive care unit | 386 (2) | 274 (2) | 112 (2) |
| Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services severity risk adjustment | |||
| Mild | 2709 (14) | 1773 (14) | 936 (15) |
| Moderate | 6895 (37) | 4714 (37) | 2181 (36) |
| Major | 7291 (39) | 4989 (39) | 2302 (38) |
| Severe | 1907 (10) | 1207 (10) | 700 (11) |
| Admission diagnosis category | |||
| Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified | 6473 (34) | 4414 (35) | 2059 (34) |
| Diseases of the circulatory system | 1802 (10) | 1185 (9) | 617 (10) |
| Diseases of the digestive system | 1695 (9) | 1138 (9) | 557 (9) |
| Diseases of the respiratory system | 1447 (8) | 985 (8) | 462 (8) |
| Diseases of the genitourinary system | 1216 (7) | 803 (6) | 413 (7) |
| Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases | 1104 (6) | 771 (6) | 333 (5) |
| Infectious diseases | 993 (5) | 654 (5) | 339 (6) |
| Other** | 4072 (22) | 2733 (22) | 1339 (22) |
| Daily mean number of medicine service patients by hospital over the index patient’s hospitalisation, median (IQR) | 72 (62–81) | 72 (62–81) | 73 (63–82) |
| Hospital admission source | |||
| Emergency department | 18 292 (97) | 12 379 (98) | 5913 (97) |
| Another acute care hospital | 433 (2) | 268 (2) | 165 (3) |
| Direct | 77 (0.4) | 36 (0.3) | 41 (0.7) |
| Season | |||
| Winter | 4444 (24) | 2935 (23) | 1509 (25) |
| Spring | 5586 (30) | 3700 (29) | 1886 (31) |
| Summer | 5542 (29) | 3646 (29) | 1896 (31) |
| Fall | 3230 (17) | 2402 (19) | 828 (14) |
| Weekend hospital admission | 4586 (24) | 2994 (24) | 1592 (26) |
| Outcomes | |||
| Hospital length of stay (days), median (IQR) | 4 (2–6) | 4 (2–6) | 4 (2–7) |
| In-hospital mortality | 123 (1) | 86 (1) | 37 (1) |
| Discharge to home among survivors | n=18 679 14 467 (78) |
n=12 597 9818 (78) |
n=6082 4649 (76) |
All values presented as n (%) except where otherwise specified.
Cohorted: patients who resided on appropriate specialty wards (ie, internal medicine, family medicine and geriatrics wards).
Bedspaced: patients who overflowed to alternate wards rather than residing on appropriate specialty wards (ie, internal medicine, family medicine and geriatrics wards) in the setting of bed constraints.
Other includes: Asian, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Pacific Islander, mixed, unknown, other.
Other includes: workman’s compensation, self-pay, charity, enrolled in a study, hospice, veteran’s association, missing.
Other includes: neoplasms; diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs and certain disorders involving the immune mechanism; mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders; diseases of the nervous system; pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium; diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue; diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue; congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities; injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes; factors influencing health status and contact with health services; external causes of morbidity; multiple diagnoses. Each of these diagnoses represented <5% of the overall population and was derived from International Classification of Disease-9 (ICD-9) and ICD-10 codes.