A Study of Factors Affecting the Length of Hospital Stay of COVID-19 Patients by Cox-Proportional Hazard Model in a South Indian Tertiary Care Hospital

BACKGROUND: The objective of the study was to identify the factors that alter the length of hospital stay of COVID-19 patients so we have an estimate of the duration of hospitalization of patients. To achieve this, we used a time to event analysis to arrive at factors that could alter the length of hospital stay, aiding in planning additional beds for any future rise in cases. METHODS: Information about COVID-19 patients was collected between June and August 2020. The response variable was the time from admission to discharge of patients. Cox proportional hazard model was used to identify the factors that were associated with the length of hospital stay. RESULTS: A total of 730 COVID-19 patients were included, of which 675 (92.5%) recovered and 55 (7.5%) were considered to be right-censored, that is, the patient died or was discharged against medical advice. The median length of hospital stay of COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized was found to be 7 days by the Kaplan Meier curve. The covariates that prolonged the length of hospital stay were found to be abnormalities in oxygen saturation (HR = 0.446, P < .001), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (HR = 0.742, P = .003), levels of D-dimer (HR = 0.60, P = .002), lactate dehydrogenase (HR = 0.717, P = .002), and ferritin (HR = 0.763, P = .037). Also, patients who had more than 2 chronic diseases had a significantly longer length of stay (HR = 0.586, P = .008) compared to those with no comorbidities. CONCLUSION: Factors that are associated with prolonged length of hospital stay of patients need to be considered in planning bed strength on a contingency basis.