LOS

See: Length of stay under Indicator Definitions.

For our purposes, LOS (length of stay) is the combined number of days a patient spent on units on which we collect data. It is not the amount of time spent in the hospital as we don't have access to hospital admit/discharge data. Ward LOS and ICU LOS are included in our monthly, quarterly and annual reports.

• LOS = Discharge Date/Time – Admit Date/Time.

For example:

• Admit Date/Time: 20 May 2008 11:30
• Discharge Date/Time: 21 May 2008 17:45
• LOS = 1.260 (3 decimal digit accuracy is used for individual patients, 1 digit for averages)

different kinds of LOSs

• There seem to be two different concepts, combined LOS (or hospital LOS?) and ward LOS. Do we have different names and definitions for these? Could be confusing without... Ttenbergen 14:39, 2014 January 2 (CST)
  • Let us call simply LOS the stay in one unit or ward and discuss in the Task Group how to call and/or define the other types of patient stays. This is really important to differentiate. JMojica 15:53, 2014 January 6 (CST)

Legacy

• resuscitated patients with a short LOS used to be ignored, Category:Arrest
• LOS vs TISS LOS - TISS76-2 hour rule used to mean that # of TISS days might be different than LOS. This is no longer the case as of TISS28.