In the United States, approximately 20% patients die annually during a hospitalization with an intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Each year, critical care costs exceed $82 billion, accounting for 13% of all inpatient hospital costs. Treatment of sepsis is listed as the most expensive condition in US hospitals, costing more than $20 billion annually. Electronic Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (eMOLST) is a standardized documentation process used in New York State to convey patients’ wishes regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other life-sustaining treatments. No study to date has looked at the effect of eMOLST as an advance care planning tool on ICU and hospital costs using estimates of direct costs. The objective of our study was to investigate whether signing of eMOLST results in any reduction in length of stay and direct costs for a community-based hospital in New York State.

A retrospective chart review was conducted between July 2016 and July 2017. Primary outcome measures included length of hospital stay, ICU length of stay, total direct costs, and ICU costs. Inclusion criteria were patients ≥65 years of age and admitted into the ICU with a diagnosis of sepsis. An independent samples t test was used to test for significant differences between those who had or had not completed the eMOLST form.

There were no statistical differences for patients who completed or did not complete the eMOLST form on hospital's total direct cost, ICU cost, total length of hospital stay, and total hours spent in the ICU.

Completing an eMOLST form did not have any effect on reducing total direct cost, ICU cost, total length of hospital stay, and total hours spent in the ICU.

Geriatric psychiatry hospital beds are a limited resource. Our aim was to determine predictors of hospital length of stay (LOS) for geriatric patients with dementia admitted to inpatient psychiatric beds.

Admission and discharge data from a large urban mental health center, from 2005 to 2010 inclusive, were retrospectively analyzed. Using the resident assessment instrument - mental health (RAI-MH), an assessment that is used to collect demographic and clinical information within 72 hours of hospital admission, 169 geriatric patients with dementia were compared with 308 geriatric patients without dementia. Predictors of hospital LOS were determined using a series of general linear models.

A diagnosis of dementia did not predict a longer LOS in this geriatric psychiatry inpatient population. The presence of multiple medical co-morbidities had an inverse relationship to length of hospital LOS – a greater number of co-morbidities predicted a shorter hospital LOS in the group of geriatric patients who had dementia compared to the without dementia study group. The presence of incapacity and positive psychotic symptoms predicted longer hospital LOS, irrespective of admission group (patients with dementia compared with those without). Conversely, pain on admission predicted shorter hospital LOS.

Specific clinical characteristics generally determined at the time of admission are predictive of hospital LOS in geriatric psychiatry inpatients. Addressing these factors early on during admission and in the community may result in shorter hospital LOS and more optimal use of resources.