summarize the article/poster

Aubert, C. E., Schnipper, J. L., Fankhauser, N., Marques-Vidal, P., Stirnemann, J., Auerbach, A. D., ... & Donzé, J. (2020). Association of patterns of multimorbidity with length of stay: a multinational observational study. Medicine, 99(34).

In this article, Aubert, et al (2020) started by noting that the length of hospital stay is used as a common measure of the utilization of healthcare resources. The authors posited noting that even though the length of hospital stay is directly associated with the healthcare costs in countries having a charging system that is based on the number of days a patient spends in the hospital, this is a phenomenon that has gained further interest from healthcare providers I countries with charging systems that are based on diagnosis related groups.

According to Aubert, et al (2020), multimorbidity is assessed as a number of conditions or with the Charlson Comorbidity index, which has been associated with a longer LOS. Also, there are suggestions from some data that multimorbidity is associated with long term dependency which can lead an increase in the risk of hospitalization and delay discharge which then extends the LOS.

To carry out this study, the researchers used a retrospective cohort of medical inpatient that were aged 18 years and above, having multimorbidity which was defined as more or equal to two chronic diseases. The researchers later identified a combination of chronic comorbidities that were associated with a prolonged LOS.