Acute care hospital days and mental diagnoses.

BACKGROUND: Data from the Discharge Abstract Database of the Canadian Institute for Health Information were used to examine acute care hospital days for patients with a mental condition coded as the most responsible diagnosis or a comorbid diagnosis. In 2009/2010, patients with a mental diagnosis represented 11.8% of people who had been hospitalized and 25.5% of acute care hospital days. Those for whom the mental condition was the most responsible diagnosis accounted for 9.0% of hospital days (1.2 million), and those with a comorbid mental diagnosis accounted for 16.5% of hospital days (2.3 million). Mental diagnoses were often associated with physical conditions. The average hospitalization with a mental diagnosis was two and a half times as long as the average for hospitalizations without a mental diagnosis. About one-quarter of hospital days with a mental diagnosis were designated as alternate level of care days.