The cost of unnecessary patient days was also estimated. The number of unnecessary days in hospital was defined as the difference between the actual discharge date and the date when health care providers documented in the chart that the patient was medically ready to leave hospital. Unnecessary days in the intermediate care unit (IMCU) or intensive care unit (ICU) were defined as the difference between the date that the patient was declassified and the date that they actually left the IMCU or ICU. We estimated the excess cost of unnecessary days on the ward by multiplying the number of patient days by the ward bed costs. We estimated the excess cost for unnecessary IMCU and ICU patient days using the difference between IMCU or ICU bed costs and costs at the next lower level of care.