The Negative Effects of Prolonged Hospital Stays

The increased access to effective healthcare has played a significant role in advancing human society in the past few decades. It has meant that major health challenges that have affected humans for many generations, such as polio, have finally been resolved and eradicated from the global populations. However, it might be argued that human society has become too dependent on modern healthcare more than they should. It is common for patients to spend extended periods in hospital to receive care. Prolonged stays in the hospital have been found to have significant negative effects that include mental exhaustion, medical complications, and a burden on the healthcare system. This work aims to further elaborate on the negative effects of prolonged hospital stays.

Prolonged Stays in Hospital

Patients who have prolonged stays in hospitals are likely to have specific health conditions that compels the healthcare professionals to extend their stay to guarantee the best care outcomes. For example, a study found that patients on an enhanced recovery program for post-surgical clients had prolonged stays in the hospital (Donsel & Missel, 2023). Although the patients may not have required to stay for long period in hospital, the surgical procedures that had been done on them required extensive clinical monitoring to ensure that the patient had fully recovered.

Although it was believed that keeping the patients in the hospital would give them the chance to fully recover under the supervision of highly capable healthcare professionals, this also resulted in other negative consequences. In interviews conducted over a period of more than a week requiring the patients to provide feedback on their experiences during the extended period in the hospital. The feedback from the interviews included some main themes; boredom, existential crisis, worry about the future, and social support during their stay. The patients also explained that personalised wellness plans can be effective at dealing with the challenges they faced when at the hospital (Donsel & Missel, 2023).

Long stay Psychiatric Residents

Long stays can the hospital or other clinical settings can affect different types of patients. In a study, it was found that psychiatric patients can become sceptical of any treatments that meant they had to overstay at a hospital. The overall opinion of these patient is essential to support their recovery from any psychiatric ailments. Based on their feedback, it was clear that having extended stays at the hospital significantly reduced the engagement in treatment regime. The patients felt like the treatment was not effective, and that they were better leaving the facility (Holley et al., 2020).

A study conducted on four patients in psychiatric settings determined that long stays had a profound impact on the patient’s recovery. The study determined that long stays at the hospital resulted in disinterest in the treatment programs offered. This is significant because it informs all psychiatric hospitals on the need to consider the period in which the patient is required to stay at their facility. Patient involvement in the care process has been shown to have a significant impact on their overall care outcomes (Holley et al., 2020). Hence, it is important to ensure that all long stays in psychiatric hospitals are only performed when it is necessary for the health and safety of the patients.

Predictors of Prolonged Hospitalization

Based in the findings that long stays have undesired effects on patients, it is important to focus on determining the various factors that contribute to these long stays. Some of the key factors that have been shown to play an important role in making hospital stays long include administrative and organisational factors. The main argument made to justify long stays for patients is that the patient needs to be monitored as they recover. However, most long stays are based on administrative and organisational factors (Diaz-Ledezma & Mardones, 2022).

A study involving thousands of participants across more than 40 hospitals found that a majority of those stayed for more than two weeks were influenced by administrative and organisational factors (Diaz-Ledezma & Mardones, 2022). Many of the patients did not have to stay at the hospital and did not have significant adverse outcomes. This demonstrates that long stays at the hospital can be reduced significantly without compromising the overall health of patients.

Conclusion

Prolonged hospital stay can cause emotional stress to clients and strain on healthcare. Personalized care plans can go a long way. It is common for residents to become sceptical of treatment they are receiving so they should be told about their progress regularly. Significance of this topic is need for understanding of client’s feeling and their reaction to treatment, their need to be engaged in treatment, how administrative and healthcare team can work towards client engagement with treatment regime and how resources must be allocated to ensure proper provision of treatment to public.

Donsel, P. O., & Missel, M. (2023). What’s going on in the hospital? A qualitative study investigating patient experiences of prolonged hospitalization after video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery. Cancer Care Research Online, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.1097/cr9.00000000000000e46

Holley, J., Weaver, T., & Völlm, B. (2020). The experience of long stays in high and medium secure psychiatric hospitals in England: Qualitative study of the patient perspective. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-020-00358-7

Diaz-Ledezma, C., & Mardones, R. (2022). Predicting prolonged hospital stays in elderly patients with hip fractures managed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile: An Artificial Neural Networks Study. HSS Journal®: The Musculoskeletal Journal of Hospital for Special Surgery, 19(2), 205–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/15563316221120582