The length of an inpatients stay in a hospital or other health facility. It is one measure of use of health facilities, reported as an average number of days spent in a facility per admission or discharge. It is calculated as follows: total number of days in the facility for all discharges and deaths occurring during a period divided by the number of discharges and deaths during the same period. In concurrent review an appropriate length of stay may be assigned each patient upon admission. Average lengths of stay vary and are measured for people with various ages, specific diagnoses, or sources of payment.
The number of days between a patient’s admission and discharge. The day of admission is counted as a day, while the day of discharge is not. This abbreviation is often misused when the intent is to refer to average length of stay (ALOS).