Table 1
Patient characteristics and complications during hospitalisation
| Population characteristics | Frequency (valid %) |
|---|---|
| Distribution of records | |
| Hospital 1 | 200 (33) |
| Hospital 2 | 132 (21) |
| Hospital 3 | 162 (26) |
| Hospital 4 | 122 (20) |
| Gender: female | 469 (76) |
| Admission department | |
| Surgery | 489 (81) |
| Orthopaedics | 86 (14) |
| Trauma surgery | 27 (4) |
| Other | 5 (1) |
| Discharge status | |
| Alive | 580 (94) |
| Deceased | 35 (6) |
| Discharge to | |
| Nursing home | 271 (48) |
| Transfer department within the hospital | 73 (13) |
| Home with care | 66 (12) |
| Home for the elderly | 60 (11) |
| Home without care | 44 (8) |
| Rehabilitation centre | 25 (4) |
| Other | 27 (4) |
| Number of complications during the index admission | |
| 0 | 352 (57) |
| 1 | 148 (24) |
| 2 | 81 (13) |
| ≥3 | 35 (6) |
| Type of complication during the index admission | |
| Delirium | 70 (11) |
| Ischaemia/heart failure | 37 (6) |
| Urinary tract infection | 30 (5) |
| Pneumonia | 30 (5) |
| Wound infection | 28 (5) |
| Bleeding/haematoma | 20 (3) |
| Other, unspecified complications | 52 (8) |
| Age of patients | Mean age (SD) (in years) |
| Hospital 1 | 84.0 (7.9) |
| Hospital 2 | 83.0 (7.0) |
| Hospital 3 | 84.5 (7.4) |
| Hospital 4 | 82.7 (7.6) |
| Length of hospital stay* | Median number of days (range) |
| Hospital 1 | 11 (2–67) |
| Hospital 2 | 9 (2–84)‡ |
| Hospital 3 | 12 (3–147)‡ |
| Hospital 4 | 11 (2–107) |
*The median length of stay was used to eliminate the influence of outliers.
‡Significant difference (
=9.41, p=0.003) between median length of stay hospital 2 and 3.