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Determine realistic patient throughput solutions

Case Management Weekly, December 11, 2007

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Poor patient throughput is common in hospitals nationwide. Emergency departments are overcrowded, beds are scarce, space is limited, and quality of care and customer service ratings are down significantly.

Susan Werthem, RN, consulting manager for revenue management at IMA Consulting in Chadds Ford, PA, who spoke during the NAHAM Annual Conference in May, offers some new best-practice approaches, such as admissions units, that can help you relieve the gridlock.

The first step is to measure key performance indicators to determine the severity of the problem within your organization. Werthem suggested that you take a close look at the following areas:

• The hours your facility is on diversion.
• Admissions. Measure ED and direct admissions by time of day and day of week. 
• Average length of stay (LOS) for general acute care.
• Noon occupancy. Compare your noon census with your midnight census.
• Wait times for inpatient beds. This tracks the performance of patient access and illustrates how many patients you are boarding.
• Wait times from registration to ED bed.
• Average discharge time. It's ideal for your discharge time to average close to 11 a.m. to keep with a healthy discharge flow.

Source: Patient Access Weekly Advisor, HCPro, Inc.

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