Fast-tracking acute hospital care — from bed crisis to bed crisis
Australian Health ReviewPublished 1 February 2007Open access
Brendon Rae, Wendy Busby, Peter H. Millard
Citations29
SJR quartileQ2
SJR score0.57
SNIP0.64
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TL;DR
The results of a continuous quality improvement project, the Delayed Discharge Project, in a general medicine service in a New Zealand teaching hospital suggest success, but 2 years after the successful cost-saving measures were introduced the new system crashed as a result of additional bed closures and organisational restructures.
Abstract
We describe here the results of a continuous quality improvement (CQI) project, the Delayed Discharge Project, in a general medicine service in a New Zealand teaching hospital. Average length of stay (ALOS) dropped by 2.6 days (6.5 to 3.9), readmission rates did not rise, costs of service delivery dropped by US dollars 2.4 million, patient numbers increased by 145 (2445 to 2590), while bed numbers reduced from 56 to 32 and ward outliers all but disappeared, suggesting success. However, 2 years after the successful cost-saving measures were introduced the new system crashed as a result of additional bed closures and organisational restructures.
Keywords
MedicineHealth ProfessionsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance
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