Abstract: healthcare Article Factors Associated with Length of Hospital Stay among COVID-19 Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Retrospective Study during the First Pandemic Wave Abdullah K. Alahmari 1, * , Ziyad S. Almalki 1 , Ahmed A. Albassam 1 , Mohammed M. Alsultan 2 , Ahmed M. Alshehri 1 , Nehad J. Ahmed 1 and Abdulhadi M. Alqahtani 3 1 2 3 * Citation: Alahmari, A.K.; Almalki, Z.S.; Albassam, A.A.; Alsultan, M.M.; Alshehri, A.M.; Ahmed, N.J.; Alqahtani, A.M. Factors Associated with Length of Hospital Stay among COVID-19 Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Retrospective Study during the First Pandemic Wave. Healthcare 2022, 10, 1201. https:// doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10071201 Academic Editors: Giuseppe Di Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia; z.almalki@psau.edu.sa (Z.S.A.); aa.albassam@psau.edu.sa (A.A.A.); ah.alshehri@psau.edu.sa (A.M.A.); n.ahmed@psau.edu.sa (N.J.A.) Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia; mmaalsultan@iau.edu.sa Clinical Research Department, Research Center, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh 12231, Saudi Arabia; ph.abdalhadi@gmail.com Correspondence: a.alahmari@psau.edu.sa Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected healthcare systems and tested their preparedness. To date, the length of hospital stay (LoHS) and its factors among COVID-19 patients has not been thoroughly studied. Moreover, it is essential to identify the features of these patients. Adult COVID-19 patients in Saudi Arabia with complete electronic medical records and who were hospitalised for >1 day between 1 May 2020 and 30 July 2020 at one of two hospitals were considered for this retrospective cohort study. Descriptive statistics and multivariate generalized linear models were performed using the data. Of the patients, 34% were ≥50 years old and 80.14% were female. More than 70% had mild-to-moderate symptoms; 45% had either diabetes or hypertension. The median LoHS was 7.00 days (IQR: 3–11). Patients who were females, had either critical or severe disease, were on mechanical ventilation, had diabetes, and administered ceftriaxone had significantly longer LoHS (p < 0.05). Patients administered zinc sulphate had significantly shorter LoHS (p = 0.0008). During the first pandemic wave, COVID-19 patients were hospitalised for 7 days. Healthcare professionals should pay more attention to women, patients with diabetes, and those with severe or critical symptoms. Unnecessary use of ceftriaxone should be minimised, and zinc sulphate can be administered. Martino, Tommaso Staniscia, Fabrizio Cedrone and Mustafa Z. Younis Keywords: COVID-19; hospital stay; hospitalisation; health systems Received: 8 April 2022 Accepted: 21 June 2022 Published: 27 June 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).