The admission is counted only in the year in which it occurred. For length of stay calculations, the days are assigned to the year in which they occur. For length of stay statistics, three of the days would be allocated to 1996, and the remaining three days would be allocated to 1997. All inpatient stays are included, even those that are less than 24 hours. This would be counted as a one-day admission.
Length of stay is calculated by taking the discharge date minus the admission date.
The one exception to this is when the discharge date minus the admission date equals zero, as in the case of patients admitted and discharged on the same day. In this case, the length of stay in converted to one day.