lntroduction:

ln 2006, the National Network for Gontinuing lntegrated Gare was created in Portugal to respond to the needs of a population with growing comorbidities. The aim of this study is to assess the length of hospital stay and medical complications of patients referred to the network in the sarne period of four different years.

Material and Methods:

Observational, retrospective study of medical patients with medical conditions referred from the hospital in the months of April to June 2010, 2012, 2016 and 2019. Demographic, clinical and referrai data were obtained from clinical processes. Statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics®, p < 0.05 was considered statistical/y significant.

Results:

205 patients were included. The main reasons for admission were infection (37.1%) and acute cerebrovascular event (35.6%) and for referrai was functional rehabilitation (79.5%). There was an increase in length of stay over the years (p < 0.001) and from referrai to hospital discharge, p = 0.04. After clinical discharge, 42.9% developed medical complications and after hospital discharge, at least 31.3% needed to be readmitted within 3 months. The number of complications did not rise.

Discussion:

The increase in hospital stays over the years since the creation of the network implies an overload in hospital health care, even though there is no increase in clinical complications before and after discharge.

Conclusion:

There is a clear need to strengthen the network and social support to the chronically ill and to create studies to assess the economic and health impact of hospital referrais.

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