Seizures With Major Comorbidity and Complications: Association of the Teaching Status of the Hospitals With the Outcomes

Background: This study aims to compare the outcomes of complicated seizure cases in teaching institutions as compared to non-teaching hospitals. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted utilizing the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) national database to analyze outcomes of seizures between 2012 and 2016 in the USA. Results: We evaluated 267,430 of seizure patients with major complication or comorbidity between 2012 and 2016. Of these, 6,980 in-hospital deaths were reported. There was a trend toward a significantly higher mortality in teaching compared with non-teaching hospitals (P = 0.07). The average length of stay (LOS) was 5.2 days, with LOS in 2014 and 2016, being longer in teaching hospitals (P < 0.05). Hospital charges were not significantly different among the two groups, but both types of hospitals did show a statistically significant charge increase from 2012 to 2016 (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Our data showed that there is a trend toward significantly higher mortality in teaching hospitals. LOS was also more reported in teaching hospitals, which could be inherent to the increased volume and coordination of care and more complexity of the cases in teaching hospitals. However, hospital charges were not different in teaching versus non-teaching hospitals. J Neurol Res. 2020;10(4):127-131 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jnr588