professional news
Length of Stay Declines as Patient Numbers Rise
Although psychiatric beds are being rapidly emptied these days, hospital staff are busy with new arrivals, plus a growing number of part-time patients and outpatients, a new report divulges.
Although psychiatric patients don’t stay in hospitals anywhere near as long as they used to, that doesn’t mean that hospital staffs don’t have much to do. As one patient leaves, another quickly takes his or her place. In a sense, it is like playing musical beds.
This is the scenario suggested by a new report that has been issued by the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems in Washington, D.C. The NAPHS represents 300 specialty psychiatric hospitals, general hospital psychiatric and addiction treatment units, residential treatment centers, behavioral group practices, and other providers of mental and behavioral health care. The new report is titled "The NAPHS 2000 Annual Survey Report-Trends in Behavioral Healthcare Systems: A Benchmarking Report."
The NAPHS surveyed its members this past spring, then compared the results with those from previous years. One finding was that the average psychiatric length of stay has plummeted—from 26 days in 1990 to about 10 days in 1994; it has remained at about 10 days since then.
Two other findings, in contrast, were that inpatient psychiatric admission rates and hospital psychiatric occupancy rates have increased. For instance, whereas a typical hospital admitted some 1,300 patients in 1994, it admitted 1,800 in 1999, and hospital psychiatric occupancy rates jumped 14 percent from 1997 to 1999.
So in spite of psychiatric patients’ short lengths of stay, hospital psychiatric staff members, it appears, are kept plenty busy with new admissions.
And adding to their workload is a growing number of patients being treated in partial-hospitalization programs and as outpatients, the survey results also revealed. Average partial-hospital psychiatric visits surged 6 percent from 1997 to 1999, and the average number of outpatient visits for a typical psychiatric patient edged up from 10 days in 1997 to 12 days in 1999.
All in all, "resources remain exceedingly tight for behavioral health care," NAPHS Executive Director Mark Covall commented upon releasing the report, "and behavioral health caregivers are working harder with limited resources. . . . Outpatient care has not grown to the degree necessary to adequately provide the care required for the most severely ill patients."
The NAPHS 2000 Annual Survey Report can be purchased for $400 from the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems, 325 Seventh Street, N.W., Suite 625, Washington, D.C. 20004 or by calling (202) 393-6700, ext. 15. Highlights from the report can be read at the NAPHS’s Web site at <www.naphs.org>.