Acute psychiatric inpatient care for people with a dual diagnosis: patient profiles and lengths of stay.

OBJECTIVE This study describes characteristics of psychiatry inpatients with developmental disabilities (DD) and their admissions to psychiatry wards in 2 acute care hospitals. It also compares differences in lengths of stay between admissions of this group with a comparison sample of inpatient admissions without DD. METHOD A retrospective chart review was conducted on all individuals with DD who were psychiatric inpatients at 2 Kingston, Ontario, general hospitals, within a 4-year period (1994 to 1998). A comparison sample of admissions of patients without DD was chosen. Frequency tables were used to describe the inpatients with DD and to describe the 2 samples of admissions. Nonparametric statistics were used to compare the median length of stay between the 2 samples. Associations between length of stay and other covariates were explored within the sample of patient admissions with DD. RESULTS The 62 individuals with DD had 101 admissions over the study period. Suicidal ideation was the most common admission reason (46%), and mood disorder was the most common discharge diagnosis (29%). The median length of stay for patients with DD was 8 days, which did not differ meaningfully from the comparison sample. Variables that were significantly associated with length of stay among individuals with DD included sex, referral source, and diagnosis. CONCLUSION When individuals with DD are psychiatric inpatients, their length of stay is affected by some factors that have been identified in previous studies not specific to DD (for example, referral source and diagnosis). Our finding that male patients with DD have longer lengths of stay than do female patients in the same sample has not been reported in previous research.