Comparing length of hospital stay during COVID-19 pandemic in the USA, Italy and Germany

Abstract

Background COVID-19 is the most informative pandemic in history. These unprecedented recorded data give rise to some novel concepts, discussions, and models. Macroscopic modeling of the period of hospitalization is one of these new issues. Methods Modeling of the lag between diagnosis and death is done by using two classes of macroscopic analytical methods: the correlation-based methods based on Pearson, Spearman, and Kendall correlation coefficients, and the logarithmic methods of two types. Also, we apply eight weighted average methods to smooth the time series before calculating the distance. We consider five lags with the least distance. All the computations are conducted on Matlab R2015b. Results The length of hospitalization for the fatal cases in the USA, Italy, and Germany are 2–10, 1–6, and 5–19 days, respectively. Overall, this length in the USA is two days more than in Italy and five days less than in Germany. Conclusion We take the distance between the diagnosis and death as the length of hospitalization. There is a negative association between the length of hospitalization and the case fatality rate. Therefore, the estimation of the length of hospitalization by using these macroscopic mathematical methods can be introduced as an indicator to scale the success of the countries fighting the ongoing pandemic.

A Systematic Review: The Dimensions utilized in the Performance Evaluation of Healthcare- An Implication during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…A systematic review for patients LoS in COVID-19 [106] concluded that LoS in China was longer than any other country, which was referred to differences in criteria for admission and discharge, and different timing within the pandemic. In another study [105], a negative association between the LoS and the case fatality rate was found. Therefore, the estimation of the LoS can be introduced as a KPI to scale the success of the countries fighting the ongoing pandemic.…”

“…A reason for that was the delays in COVID-19 testing results [104]. LoS in the USA was found to be 2 days more than that in Italy and 5 days less than that in Germany [105]. A systematic review for patients LoS in COVID-19 [106] concluded that LoS in China was longer than any other country, which was referred to differences in criteria for admission and discharge, and different timing within the pandemic.…”

A systematic review: the dimensions to evaluate health care performance and an implication during the pandemic

“…A reason for this was the delays in COVID-19 testing results [ 114 ]. The LOS in the USA was two days more than that in Italy and five days less than that in Germany [ 115 ]. A systematic review for patient LOS in COVID-19 [ 116 ] concluded that LOS in China was longer than that in any other country, referring to differences in criteria for admission and discharge and different timings within the pandemic.…”

Hospital Length of Stay and Related Factors for COVID-19 Inpatients Among the Four Southern Regions Under the Proposed Southern Business Unit of Saudi Arabia

“… 13 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 A study using LoS to compare how well the USA, Italy, and Germany handled the pandemic at the beginning showed that the number of days between diagnosis and death varied significantly between the three countries. 23 Ours will be the first study to examine regional differences in factors related to hospital LoS in the SBU filling a crucial gap in knowledge needed to provide equitable high-quality healthcare across all four regions of the SBU.…”