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Table 1 Hospital and patient characteristics of the study samples for 1, 2 or 3 or more specialties

From: What are the safety risks for patients undergoing treatment by multiple specialties: a retrospective patient record review study

Hospital and patient characteristics †

One specialty

Two specialties

Three or more specialties

Total

Male sex %, n = 2051

49.3

50.5

52.5

49.9

Age in years, mean (SD)

57.7 (21.0)

64.3 (19.7)

66.6 (17.5)

60.0 (20.7)

Length of hospital stay in days, mean (SD/median)

4.6 (5.3/3.0)

8.3 (8.0/6.0)

16.2 (16.6/12.0)

6.7 (8.9/4.0)

Urgent admissions %, n = 2727

46.3

69.2

76.5

54.1

Surgery during admission %, n = 1336

48.5

36.6

30.0

44.1

Admission to an intensive care unit %, n = 640

3.8

14.4

23.4

8.0

Hospital departments, column %

    

- Surgery, n = 703

21.6

25.1

18.4

21.9

- Cardiology, n = 421

12.4

11.9

6.5

11.6

- Internal medicine, n = 863

13.7

20.2

24.5

16.2

- Orthopaedics, n = 255

13.2

5.3

7.3

11.0

- Neurology, n = 366

5.1

10.9

18.0

7.7

- Lung diseases, n = 374

5.9

7.3

6.1

6.2

- Ear, nose and throat, n = 91

5.1

0.8

0.4

3.7

- Urology, n = 127

6.1

3.4

2.3

5.2

- Other, n = 796

10.3

2.6

2.5

13.2

ICD-9 diagnostic groups, column %*

12.6

10.9

11.8

 

- Neoplasm’s, n = 649

12.6

10.9

11.8

12.2

- Nervous system and sensory organs, n = 105

3.7

1.9

2.5

3.3

- Circulatory system, n = 1051

17.9

27.6

27.7

20.8

- Respiratory system, n = 453

8.7

9.1

8.0

8.7

- Digestive system, n = 355

10.8

11.1

9.7

10.8

- Genitourinary system, n = 187

6.9

5.2

3.8

6.3

- Musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, n = 261

14.1

6.5

6.3

11.9

- Ill-defined conditions, n = 242

6.2

5.9

7.6

6.3

- Injury and poisoning, n = 320

8.7

11.1

12.5

9.5

- Other ‡, n = 374

10.2

10.5

9.9

9.3

  1. †Hospital and patient characteristics are weighted for overrepresentation of deceased patients and university hospitals. N: actual numbers of cases, not weighted.
  2. ‡Other: includes smallest groups (3% and under): infectious and parasitic diseases; endocrine, nutritional, metabolic and immunity; blood and blood forming; mental; complications birth; skin and subcutaneous disease; congenital abnormalities; V-codes. n = actual number, not weighted.