Characteristics of unplanned hospitalisations among cancer patients in Singapore

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION@#Cancer is a pervasive global problem with significant healthcare utilisation and cost. Emergency departments (EDs) see large numbers of patients with oncologic emergencies and act as "gate-keepers" to subsequent hospital admissions. A proportion of such hospital admissions are rapidly discharged within 2 days and may be potentially avoidable.@*METHODS@#Over a 6-month period, we conducted a retrospective audit of active cancer patients presenting to the ED with subsequent admission to the Department of Medical Oncology. Our aims were to identify independent factors associated with a length of stay ≤2 days; and characterise the clinical and resource needs of these short admissions.@*RESULTS@#Among all medical oncology admissions, 24.4% were discharged within 2 days. Compared to longer stayers, patients with short admissions were significantly younger (@*CONCLUSION@#Short admissions have low resource needs and may be managed in the ED. This may help save valuable inpatient bed-days and reduce overall healthcare costs.