In-hospital complications among survivors of admission for congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or diabetes mellitus

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of hospital complications among survivors of inpatient treatment for congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or diabetes mellitus (DM). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Nine Veterans Affairs hospitals in the southern United States. PATIENTS: 1,837 men veterans discharged alive following hospitalization for CHF, COPD, or DM between January 1987 and December 1989. This patient population represents a subset of cases gathered to study the process of care in the hospital and subsequent early readmission; thus, veterans who died in the hospital were not included. MEASUREMENTS: Medical record review to record the occurrence of any of 30 in-hospital complications such as cardiac arrest, nosocomial infections, or delirium (overall agreement between two reviewers=84%, kappa=0.37). RESISTS: Complications occurred in 15.7% of the CHF cases, 13.1% of the COPD cases, and 14.8% of the DM cases. Hypoglycemic reactions were the most frequent individual adverse events in the CHF and DM cases (3.6% and 11.4% of the cases, respectively), and theophylline toxicity was most frequent among the COPD cases (4.9%). Patient age, the presence of comorbid diseases, and the Acute Physiology Score (APS) of APACHE II were associated with complication occurrence. For each disease, the patients who had a complication had significantly longer mean hospital stays than did the patients who did not have complications (14.6 to 14.9 days vs 7.2 to 8.2 days, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Complications are frequent among patients discharged alive with CHF, COPD, or DM. The patients who experienced complications were more ill on admission and had longer hospital stays.