Factors associated with patient readmission to a specialised psychiatric hospital in the Eastern Cape

South African Journal of Psychiatry

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Factors associated with patient readmission to a specialised psychiatric hospital in the Eastern Cape
 
Creator Gaida, Razia Okafor, Chinedum Janse van Vuuren, Lichelle Davids, Adlai S.
 
Subject Health systems; Psychiatry; Public Health psychiatry; readmission; health; Eastern Cape; South Africa.
Description Background: Hospital readmissions increase healthcare system costs and can place additional strain on already sparse government funds and under-resourced hospitals. Few studies have investigated readmission of patients in mental health facilities in South Africa.Aim: The study aimed to identify the factors associated with readmission of patients discharged from an acute psychiatric public hospital in South Africa.Setting: The study was conducted at an acute psychiatric public hospital.Method: A retrospective review of medical records was conducted for all patients admitted and readmitted between January 2018 and December 2019.Results: From the pool of patient records analysed (n = 516), 93 (18.02%) were readmitted, of which the majority (75.27%) were male. The average age of patients readmitted was 27.24 ± 11.16 years, which was significantly younger than the total sample (p 0.05; CI 1.095–7.105). Findings indicated that patients who completed lower levels of education, were unemployed and were diagnosed with substance (mono- or polysubstance) use disorder (n = 93; 100%), schizophrenia (n = 33; 35.48%), bipolar disorder (n = 9; 9.68%) or intellectual disability (n = 9; 9.68%) were more frequently readmitted, with the average length of stay varying widely between patients.Conclusion: Younger patients and those living with more complex psychiatric conditions, particularly those who are substance abusers, were readmitted more frequently, indicating that these patients may require special consideration for management.Contribution: The study revealed that patients living with complex psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were readmitted to hospital more frequently, indicating that management of these patients at the community level is challenging.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Eastern Cape Department of Health Elizabeth Donkin Psychiatric Hospital
Date 2022-12-19
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Quantitative research; retrospective review
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v28i0.1878
 
Source South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol 28 (2022); 7 pages 2078-6786 1608-9685
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1878/2798 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1878/2799 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1878/2800 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1878/2801
 
Coverage Eastern Cape 2018 - 2019 age; gender; education; employment; relationship status
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Razia Gaida, Chinedum Okafor, Lichelle Janse van Vuuren, Adlai S. Davids https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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