Engelsk titel: Reduced length of hospital stays for elderly patients
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Författare:
Grödem, Anne Skevik
;
Hermansen, Åsmund
Email: asmund.hermansen@fafo.no
Språk: Nor
Antal referenser: 18
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 15033565
Sammanfattning
Background: The Coordination Reform has requirements and objectives with regard to reducing
the length of hospital stays for elderly patients; this has highlighted the challenge of recruiting
enough skilled personnel to the municipal care sector.
Objective: The aim of the article is to empirically test the following hypothesis: Somatic patients
above the age of 80 spend fewer nights in state hospitals if they live in a municipality that had
increased the number of nurse FTEs between 2010 and 2013.
Method: This paper applies a fixed effects model in combination with multiple linear regression
analysis, based on a panel data set that includes 427 Norwegian municipalities throughout the years
2010-2013.
Result: The analysis shows that there was a decrease in the number of nights spent in hospitals for
somatic patients aged 80 and over between 2010 and 2013. This decrease must be understood as an
effect of the Coordination Reform, changes in the number of re-commitments, proportion of service
users with extensive care needs in the municipality, and the proportion who died during this period.
Increases in the proportion of nurse FTEs and changes in the services offered do not appear to have
independent effects on the outcome variable. The hypothesis is, therefore, not supported.