ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Wetry to establish the utility that a Short Stay Unit depending on Internal Medicine has for a third level hospital. This unit manages the patients under the "appropriate stay" concept. METHODS: Several clinical and epidemic variables and sanitary indicators were studied in 867 patients. Cost was measured as the origin by average stays, explorations and readmission. Effectiveness was considered as the percentage of discharges that stay in the hospital for three days or less. RESULTS: The average age of the patients was 65.05 years. 55% were males. 82.24% had any previous disease. The most common diagnosis (ICD-9) were respiratory diseases, nervous system diseases and digestive diseases. The average stay of the patients was 57 hours, 2,259 explorations were ordered, it supposes an average of 0.328 urgent explorations and 2,276 UCE explorations. 310 explorations were no received when the patient was sent home. 36.56% of the patients required no explorations. 62.4% of the patients were sent home. Explorations not received had a bad influence in the average stay and in the discharges. Readmissions were 9.36%. CONCLUSIONS: We got hay 62.4% of the patients had a stay of 2,375 days in the hospital, With a reasonably low cost in readmissions and explorations. However it wasn't possible to establish which patient coming to the Emergency Service is appropriate for this Short Stay Unit.
