Linked Life Data

1943796

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/1943796

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
3
pubmed:dateCreated
1991-12-4
pubmed:abstractText
The empirical distribution of length of stay of patients in departments of geriatric medicine is fit extremely well by a sum of two exponentials. Most of the patients in a geriatric department are rehabilitated and discharged or they die within a few weeks of admission, but the few who become long-stay patients remain for months or even years. A model is presented for the flow of patients through a geriatric department, which has analogies to models of drug flow in pharmacokinetics. The theoretical model explains why the empirical pattern of length of stay in the occupied beds fits a sum of two exponentials; conversely, the empirical distribution, obtained from the midnight bed state report, can be used to study the effect of various policy decisions on both immediate and future admission rates for the department, and shows the benefits of policies which reduce long-stay patient numbers by improving long-stay rehabilitation.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Aug
pubmed:issn
0026-1270
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
30
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
221-8
pubmed:dateRevised
2004-11-17
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1991
pubmed:articleTitle
Balancing acute and long-term care: the mathematics of throughput in departments of geriatric medicine.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Mathematics, College of Charleston, SC.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article