While this approach has previously been used as a gold standard measure for multiple outcomes, transforming medical records into research data is resource intensive and requires exceptional knowledge and skill in medical context and research. Retrospective data may be collected via review of scanned inpatient medical records post hospital discharge.
However this is a time-intensive data collection method which is difficult to fund in the current environment where research funding is increasingly more competitive. Observational length of stay and discharge destination data can be manually collected from ward-based sources including nursing handover records, paper-based ward discharge/transfer records, paper-based inpatient medical records, direct observation by experienced personnel, and 24hour recall of key hospital personnel (e.g. There are numerous methods by which data may be collected for research and hospital administrative purposes. Due to their importance, researchers use these measures as key indicators of effectiveness and efficiency when evaluating hospital service provision. Hospital discharge destination is an influencing factor on length of stay providing a means of quantifying numerous measures such as requirements for sub-acute inpatient care changes in level of care requirement for community services following discharge, and hospital death. Length of stay is often used as a measure of healthcare efficiency by researchers, clinicians, administrators, and policy makers in planning the delivery of health services.
Hospital length of stay and discharge destination are important outcome measures used in health services research.
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