Inpatient length of stay: a finite mixture modeling analysis.

Length of stay (LOS) in hospital for inpatient treatment is a measure of crucial recovery time. Using nationwide data on inpatient healthcare in India, a three-component finite mixture negative binomial model was found to provide a reasonable fit to the heterogeneous LOS distribution. Associated risk factors for short-stay, medium-stay and long-stay subgroups were identified from the respective negative binomial components. In addition, significant heterogeneities within each group were also found.