Comparative study of length of stay of COVID-19 recovered patients in government and private tertiary care setup

Background: COVID-19 pandemic placed an unprecedented strain on health-care systems. The demand for healthcare in hospitals and intensive care units increased everywhere in the world in the form of beds, staff, equipment, medicines, etc. In this process, length of stay in hospital of COVID-infected patients is a crucial point for hospital authorities to plan to provide effective healthcare to patients arriving at the hospital and also to treat non-COVID patients and other medical emergencies. 

Aims and Objectives: The aims of this study were to find the difference in length of stay in government and private tertiary care setup, to find the length of stay of COVID recovered patient with and without morbidities.

Materials and Methods: After taking due permission from the ethical committee and respective authorities concerned in private and government tertiary care hospitals, case sheets of patient recovered from COVID were taken and analyzed in terms of patients condition while presentation to hospital, SpO2, morbidities, number of days symptoms developed, and length of stay in hospital. 

Results: In my study, the length of stay of COVID-infected people in private and government setup was almost the same, around 11–12 days. Patients with comorbidities had a higher length of stay in hospital in both private and government setup, but the duration of stay was higher in government setup 14 days in government setup, 11–12 days in private setup. Good SpO2 at time of admission had decreased the length of stay of hospital in both setups. There is no correlation between length of stay in hospital and period of symptoms before admission in both private and government setup. 

Conclusions: In my study, the length of stay of patient with COVID infection was higher in government setup by 1 day without morbidities and 2–3 days with morbidities.