I don't have an answer to your question, but I recently spent some time at the hospital taking care of my daughter, and my understanding is that a lot of it com

I don't have an answer to your question, but I recently spent some time at the hospital taking care of my daughter, and my understanding is that a lot of it comes down to the fact that hospitals are able to provide good enough care to be comfortable discharging patients earlier. It used to be more common to keep patients at the hospital just in case, but they now send patients home in many of those cases. In my (unprofessional) opinion, this is a good thing. Recovery is much easier in the comfort of our own home, without the stress of being woken up at all hours of the night for tests. We're also completely avoiding a huge risk -- hospital borne infections.