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COMMENTS AND OPINIONS
Hospital Study Strength Principally Limited to Analysis of Specific Patient Diagnoses—Reply
William Southern, MD, MS;
Eran Bellin, MD;
Matthew Berger, MD;
Julia Arnsten, MD, MPH
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In reply
Boller et al correctly point out that in our study we have not done a detailed cost savings analysis.1 The cost savings associated with a 1-day reduction in LOS varies among institutions by payer mix, thus our institution's cost savings are unique. Although we report a mean reduction of 0.86 days, all LOS measurements are in integers, indicating a large number of "whole" days saved with hospitalist care. Boller et al also correctly point out that the LOS variable was not normally distributed. We elected to report mean LOS because that is what has been commonly done, but our analysis takes into account the nonnormal distribution and uses appropriate rank-based testing.
We acknowledge that the small number of hospitalist physicians in our study is a drawback. These physicians were not aware that a study . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Hospitalist Care and Length of Stay in Patients Requiring Complex Discharge Planning and Close Clinical Monitoring
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Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(17):1869-1874.
ABSTRACT
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RELATED LETTER
Hospital Study Strength Principally Limited to Analysis of Specific Patient Diagnoses
William Boller, Delnora Erickson, Courtney Lawson, and Robert Patrick Lennon
Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(16):1825-1826.
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