Greater proportion
of patients with SCIs were admitted to teaching hospitals as compared
with patients hospitalized for other conditions. This may be explained
by the fact that teaching hospitals are better equipped with
sophisticated technology needed to treat complex conditions such
as SCIs as compared with nonteaching hospitals.18 Greater proportion
of hospitalizations for SCIs occurred in trauma centers as compared
with hospitalizations for other reasons. This was an expected finding
as trauma centers are specially equipped for the treatment of
traumatic injuries. For patients with SCIs, roughly 54% of the
discharges resulted in transfer to other facilities and 27% of the
discharges were routine, whereas for patients hospitalized for other
reasons, more than two-thirds of the discharges were routine. The
high percentage of discharges resulting in transfer to other facilities in
hospitalizations for SCIs may be because of the fact that
hospitalizations for the treatment of traumatic SCIs are usually
followed by rehabilitation19 and hence may involve transfer to a
rehabilitation center. In our study, hospitalizations for SCI could have
been for the initial treatment of traumatic SCIs or follow-up
hospitalizations post the initial treatment of SCIs. The follow-up
hospitalizations for the treatment of SCIs could have contributed to
the substantial number