Appropriate utilization of hospital beds in internal medicine: evaluation in a tertiary care hospital

Aim To assess the appropriateness of utilization of beds in the internal medicine department of a university hospital. Methods The appropriateness of hospital stay was evaluated using the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol. A random sample of 402 days of stay was assessed. Results One hundred and thirty‐nine days of stay (34.6%) were classified as inappropriate. The inappropriate stays were mostly secondary to hospital‐related factors. The two major factors for inappropriate stays were ‘inappropriate timing/delay in diagnostic procedures/consultations’ (27%) and ‘delay in obtaining test results’ (27%). None of the factors including age, gender, residence and inpatient period was significantly related to inappropriate stay in univariate analysis. Conclusion This study indicated that a significant portion of stays were inappropriate. Efforts to decrease particularly hospital‐related factors associated with inappropriate stay are needed.