Hospitalization for nontraumatic disorders of the eye and ocular adnexa: analysis of the Florida agency for health care administration data set.

OBJECTIVE

To study the demographic features and patterns of hospital admission in Florida for nontraumatic disorders of the eye and ocular adnexa.

METHODS

The public data set from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration for 2001 was used to identify persons hospitalized for 24 hours or longer for nontraumatic disorders of the eye and ocular adnexa by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes.

RESULTS

In 2001, there were 2137 hospital admissions for nontraumatic disorders of the eye and ocular adnexa, most of which were for infections or neuro-ophthalmologic disorders. The median length of stay was 3.0 days (mean +/- SD, 3.4 +/- 3.8 days). On average, 1 patient was admitted per month to 180 Florida hospitals. Eighty-three patients (3.9% of eye admissions) were hospitalized for 10 days or longer and accounted for 18.1% of total hospital-patient days. Prolonged hospital stay was positively associated with hospital transfer (P <.001) and facial cellulitis (P =.04). A trend for positive association with Medicaid coverage was also observed (P =.07).

CONCLUSIONS

Nontraumatic eye care composes a small proportion of all inpatient care (< 0.1%) in Florida. Few of these patients require prolonged hospitalization but use a large proportion of inpatient care on the basis of the percentage of gross charges. An opportunity exists to improve hospital efficiency and improve eye care by targeting the patients at highest risk for prolonged hospital stay.