Trends in medical and surgical admission length of stay by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status: a time series analysis

ABSTRACT Length of stay, a metric of hospital efficiency, differs by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES). Longer LOS is associated with adverse health outcomes. We assessed differences in average adjusted length of stay (aALOS) over time by race/ethnicity, and SES stratified by discharge destination (home or non-home). Using the 2009-2014 State Inpatient Datasets from three states, we examined trends in aALOS differences by race/ethnicity, and SES (defined first vs fourth quartile of median income by zip code) controlling for patient, disease and hospital characteristics. For those discharged home, racial/ethnic and SES aALOS differences remained stable. Notably, for those discharged to non-home destinations, Black vs White, and low vs high SES aALOS differences increased significantly from 2009 to 2013, more sharply after Q3 2011, the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) introduction. Further research to understand the ACA’s policy impact on hospital efficiencies, and relationship to racial/ethnic and SES differences in LOS is warranted.