Length of Stay is one of several measures we publish on our website to help people looking for a hospital or consultant doctor to diagnose or treat a health condition.
Length of Stay shows how many nights you might expect to stay in hospital, based on the actual times spent by previous patients undergoing the same procedure.
On our data sheets, we show a range of previous patients’ stays in the hospital for each procedure, from day case (no overnight stay) to 10+ nights, as well as the average.
PHIN only shows Length of Stay for privately funded patients. NHS-funded patients may have different complexities and factors in their procedure compared to typical private patients. Basing this on the experience of private patients should give you a better indication if considering a procedure on a private basis.
Patients who are admitted and discharged on the same day are often referred to as ‘Day Cases’. We publish a different type of measure for these patients – the Day Case Rate. A Day Case Rate is calculated and published for each different procedure and is the percentage of all the patients who underwent this procedure, who were admitted and discharged on the same day. So, if 100 patients underwent Cataract Surgery and 80 of them were in and out on the same day, the Day Case Rate would be 80/100 = 80%.
Why should I be interested in Length of Stay information?
The first thing to check is whether your consultant or hospital has Length of Stay and Day Case Rate measures at all. If they are not reporting this basic information, it may lead you to question whether they have good processes in place.
Neither measure describes the medical competence of the consultant or hospital, so you should not use them to check safety and quality on their own.
While in the NHS a shorter Length of Stay is often seen as a sign of a quicker recovery, in private healthcare there are multiple reasons why people might have a longer Length of Stay. For example, often people will travel long distances to see a specific surgeon. In these cases, it may not be practical for the patient to go home quickly, particularly if this would entail international travel.
Similarly, differences in Day Case Rates between hospitals or consultants may simply reflect patient preferences and convenience.
However, Length of Stay can give you an indication of how long you are likely to stay in hospital following a procedure and whether the hospital is in line with other hospitals.
This may be an important factor in your care decision. Some people want the reassurance of recovering in hospital, while others are keen to go home as soon as possible. If you are keen on a longer recovery in hospital, be aware that this may have a financial impact, so it is best to check with your insurer or the hospital on what this impact might be.
Length of Stay cannot tell you the full story of what is going on. This information is best used during discussions with your consultant or hospital, to understand how long you might be expected to stay and why, considering your individual case.
Different ways of presenting Length of Stay depending on the type of admission and procedures
Length of Stay is only published for procedures at site level, consultant level or national level.
The Length of Stay measures are only calculated where patients have spent at least one night in the hospital. Admissions, where the patient is admitted and discharged on the same are referred to as “Day Cases” and are not included in this measure.
The Day Case Rate is calculated for day case spells which is the percentage of procedures within the selected procedure group performed as a day case (where the patient is admitted and discharged on the same day i.e., there is no overnight stay). Percentage of day case rates is calculated by dividing the count of ‘Day Case Spells’ by ‘Total Spells’, multiplied by 100.
Our website allows people to search for hospitals or consultants who undertake specific operations close to the person lives.
After entering a location and operation, the website will present the visitor with a list of consultants who perform the operation sorted by those closest to the chosen location. The visitor can switch between showing consultants and hospitals and can alternatively sort both by the number of Admissions – with the consultant or hospital with the largest number of annual Admissions listed first.
You can access more information about both by clicking the “View” button:
- The total count of annual Admissions – this is for all operations, not just the selected one.
- The count of Admissions for the selected operation. If the hospital or consultant also treated NHS patients, the website will show these numbers if the data are available.
- Some operations can be performed as day cases, where the patient is admitted and discharged on the same day. If any of the hospitals’ or consultants’ patients for the selected operation were treated as day cases their proportion of the total count will also be shown.
- If an overnight stay is required, the website will show the average number of nights for that procedure.
- The Length of Stay Datasheets provide three different methods for calculating Length of Stay.
- Whichever method you choose it is always important to compare like-with-like so use the same one for every hospital and consultant you look into.
Method 1 – Length of Stay by Consultant by Procedure for Any Number of Procedures
The LoS is calculated for all spells containing the selected procedure, regardless of any other procedure which may also present within the same spell.
This method is comprehensive in terms of the number of spells used to calculate LoS as it includes all spells within which the selected procedure is present. However, the LoS of a spell containing a selected procedure on its own may be very different to that for spells which also contain other procedures. This may lead to misleading measures of the LoS for a selected procedure if it is skewed by the presence of other procedures in the same spell.
For this reason, PHIN also publishes two other measures of Length of Stay.
Method 2 – Length of Stay by Site by Procedure for a Single Procedure
The LoS calculation is based on admissions which only have the selected procedure present and no other procedures appearing during the admission to hospital.
This method avoids the skewing of LoS which may result from the presence of other procedures in the same spell – as referred to under Method 1.
Method 3 – Length of Stay by Consultant by Procedure for a surgical procedure
This LoS calculation uses the concept of ‘surgical’ and ‘non-surgical’ procedures. Non-surgical procedures are defined by PHIN as procedures hospitals do not normally admit patients exclusively for. Examples includes procedures such as diagnostic imaging or catheterisation.
LoS is calculated for admissions containing only one surgical procedure. This may be present with one or more non-surgical procedures.
National and hospital site Length of Stay information
We use the same methods to publish national and hospital site information:
- By Nation by Procedure (LoS by Nation by Proc – 1 tab)
- By Nation by Procedure (LoS by Nation by Proc – 2 tab)
- By Nation by Procedure (LoS by Nation by Proc – 3 tab)
- By Hospital Site by Procedure (LoS by Site by Proc – 1 tab)
- By Hospital Site by Procedure (LoS by Site by Proc – 2 tab)
- By Hospital Site by Procedure (LoS by Site by Proc – 3 tab)
Help with understanding and using our healthcare datasheets
Find out more about our data sheets, including how we protect patient data.
Go to Datasheets.
