• Amada Pellico-López, Ana Fernández-Feito, Paula Parás-Bravo, Manuel Herrero-Montes, Joaquín Cayón-De Las Cuevas, David Cantarero, and Maria Paz-Zulueta.
• Cantabria Health Service, Avenida Derechos de la Infancia, Cantabria, Spain.
• Int. J. Clin. Pract. 2021 Nov 1; 75 (11): e14765.

BackgroundDelayed discharge for non-clinical reasons is related to a failure to plan for discharge and a lack of availability of intermediate care resources as an alternative to acute hospitalisation. The literature concerning the relationship with pneumonia is scarce. At present, the coronavirus pandemic is a new cause of complicated pneumonias that can further affect the functionality of the most fragile patients.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to understand what characteristics are typical of patients affected by pneumonia, compared with other cases of delayed discharge.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted. All cases of delayed discharge were studied at the hospitalisation units of a general university hospital in Northern Spain from 2007 to 2015. In order to compare the differential characteristics of the groups of patients with pneumonia with the total Student's T-test and Pearson's chi-square test (χ²) were used.Results170 patients were identified with a diagnosis of pneumonia and delayed discharge for non-clinical reasons during the study period. These cases accumulated a total of 4790 days of total stay, of which 1294 days corresponded to the prolonged stay. The mean age of the patients was 80.23 years. The mean DRG weight was 2.28 [SD 0.579], and 14.12% of patients with pneumonia and delayed discharge died. So, patients with pneumonia were older (P = .001), less complex (P = .001) and suffered greater deaths compared with the remaining patients (P = .001).ConclusionsThe sum of these factors has to do with comorbidities and complications associated with ageing and the characteristics of conditions such as aspiration pneumonia.© 2021 The Authors. International Journal of Clinical Practice published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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