Study: Shorter hospital stays don't mean worse care

U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals were able to reduce their patients' length of stay without increasing the number of people who needed to be readmitted later on, according to a new study. "As hospitals became more efficient there was this growing concern that we were discharging patients—as some would say—sicker and quicker," said the study's lead author Dr. Peter Kaboli. "In fact, we found just the opposite," said Kaboli, who works at the Iowa City VA Health Care System. According to the researchers, who published their findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine, hospitals are under pressure to cut the amount of time their patients spend there.