Are hospitalized patients becoming more complex? Results from a population-based study

John Staples, MD, FRCPC, FACP, MPH Scientist, Advancing Health Clinical Associate Professor, UBC Health Professional-Investigator, Michael Smith Health Research B.C.

Hiten Naik, MD Research Fellow, Clinician–Investigator Program, UBC General Internal Medicine Physician, UBC Hospital Wednesday, March 6, 2024 12:00–1:00 PM The Cullen Family Lecture Theatre at St. Paul’s Hospital, or Online Complex patients require complex care. Clinicians, hospital administrators, politicians and journalists sometimes suggest that a relentless, decades-long increase in patient complexity has contributed to strained hospital capacity, ballooning hospital costs, increased clinician burnout, and poor health system performance. Claims of increasing hospital inpatient complexity are intuitively appealing but rarely interrogated using empirical data. Drs Naik and Staples recently completed a population-based study that evaluated trends in complexity over a 15-year period using linked administrative health data for 3.4 million nonelective hospitalizations in British Columbia. In this Work in Progress seminar, Drs Naik and Staples will discuss their research and its implications for our healthcare system.