Abstract:
Background; Length of hospital stay post-operatively is the duration of stay in the surgical ward
after surgery, and it is the most important problem hospitals are facing around the world today,
with magnitude rates ranging from 3 % to 50.8%.However,in Ethiopia, data are scarce on this
topic, so the purpose of this study was to determine the length of post-operative hospital stays.
Objective: This study aimed to order the length of hospital stay post-operative and associated
factors among adult surgical patients admitted to the surgical ward at Adama hospital medical
college and Asella referral teaching hospital Oromia, Ethiopia, from May 1st to June 30th, 2022.
Methods; An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 500 adult surgical
patients who were admitted to the surgical ward at Adama Hospital Medical College and Asella
Referral Teaching Hospitals.Consecutive sampling techniques were used.Data were entered into
Epi Data version 4.6 and transferred to SPSS Windows version 26 for analysis. Bivariable and
multivariable ordinal logistic regression analyses were utilized to look into the predictability
between the dependent and independent variables.The adjusted proportional odd ratio within a
95% confidence interval at a P-value of < 0.05 was used for reporting.
Results;Among the 500 patients who took part in the study, the overall prolonged hospital stay
post-surgery was 21.2% (95% CI: 17.8%–24.9%).. The outcome variable was further ordered into
three groups based on the duration of their stay in the hospital post-surgery: short (213; 42.6%),
medium (181; 36.2%), and prolonged (106; 21.2%). Having diabetes (AOR = 4.30, 95% CI: 1.97,
9.41), having a post-surgery complication (AOR = 6.87, 95% CI: 3.90, 12.09), having post-surgery
bleeding at surgery (AOR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.02, 2.15), and having surgery related to trauma (AOR
= 10.39, 95% CI: 6.21, 17.37) were all factors that were associated with a prolonged hospital stay
after surgery.
Conclusion; Postoperative hospital stays for surgical patients were longer than necessary due to
preventable factors such as postoperative complications, trauma-related surgery, and comorbidity
(such as diabetes). The organization in question should do everything possible to resolve the issue.