In actual treatment, if discharge is long in coming

When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

From "Sun Tzu on the Art of War - The Oldest Military Treatise in the World"

Translated from the Chinese By Lionel Giles, M.A. (1910)

Discussion:

There is no need to discuss much about the implications of prolonged hospital stays as well as protracted military campaigns.

Translation:

When you engage in actual treatment, if discharge is long in coming, then staff's focuses will grow dull and their ardour will be damped. If you run over capacity of a hospital, you will exhaust your strength. Again, if the admission is protracted, the resources of the teams will not be equal to the strain. Now, when your focuses are dulled, your ardour damped, your strength exhausted and your expenditure spent, adverse events and complications will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no practitioners, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

Ray Murakami