Analysis Of Length Of Stay Of Patients In Emergency Care Unit Of Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia (A Case Study Of Crowther Ward)

ABSTRACT

The study entitled "Analysis of length of stay of patients in emergency care unit of federal medical centre, Umuahia (a case study of crowther ward)" was conducted to access the probability distribution that best fits the length of stay of patients in the ward. The data used in this work was secondary data collected from the Crowther ward of the Federal Medical Centre Umuahia. The data comprises 100 patients with their age, date of admission, diagnosis, and date of discharge, disposal and number of days in the ward. It was seen that the number of days (length of stay) a patient stayed in the ward followed best the Exponential 2 parameter distribution. It was also seen that the expected length of stay of patient who enters the ward was estimated to be 18 days on the average. The age and type of disease was found to be some of the factors that influenced the length of stay of patients in the Crowther ward. Aged patients (patients of the dependent population) and patients diagnosed of fractures were found to stay much longer than other patients in the ward. The study therefore recommends that the management of the Crowther ward Federal Medical Centre Umuahia should provide more bed space and quality and timely services to patients. Government, churches and other social organizations should educate and sensitize their members on the implications of road accidents which will help reduce the rate at which patients are admitted into the Crowther ward and also the length of stay of patients in the ward.