What is it about?
A downward trend in average length of stay in hospital has been ongoing since the 1980's, however, recent evidence in England is that LOS is reaching an asympatote (ass occurred in the USA some 10 years ago).
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Why is it important?
This is fundamentally important regarding estimates of future acute bed numbers. Indeed age is one of the fundamental drivers of LOS and an ageing population dictates upward pressure on LOS.
Perspectives
As any forecaster will tell you, trends do not continue uninterrupted ad-infinitum. Clearly we cannot assume that LOS will continue to decline as it has done in the past, see http://www.hcaf.biz/2010/Publications_Full.pdf
Dr Rodney P Jones
Healthcare Analysis & Forecasting
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This page is a summary of: Declining length of stay and future bed numbers, British Journal of Healthcare Management, September 2015, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/bjhc.2015.21.9.440.
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