ALOS (Average Length of Stay) is calculated based on which of the following?

Average Length of Stay (ALOS) is a key metric in healthcare that reflects the average duration of a patient's stay in a hospital. The calculation of ALOS is determined by dividing the total number of inpatient service days by the total number of discharges during a specific period.

Total discharge days directly relate to this calculation as they represent the cumulative number of days patients have spent in the hospital until their discharge. When you count the total inpatient service days, you essentially sum up the days that patients were admitted and stayed in the facility before being discharged. Thus, using total discharge days as the divisor gives you the average number of days those patients occupied a bed, which is crucial for assessing hospital efficiency and resource utilization.

Using this understanding, it becomes clear why total discharge days is the appropriate concept to base ALOS on, as it encapsulates the length of stay for all discharged patients, allowing for a measure of performance in managing hospital resources effectively.