Case Management

Tip of the week: Smooth out the flow in your obstetrics unit

Case Management Weekly, August 24, 2005

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A key step to improving patient flow in the obstetrics unit is to examine data in the following areas to determine the ward's needs:

  • Number of scheduled patients
  • Number of unscheduled patients
  • Time of patient arrival
  • Length of stay
  • Pattern of demand
The length of time you collect data depends on what data is available, says patient-flow expert Eugene Litvak, PhD, professor of healthcare and operations management at Boston University and director of the Program for Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery. The more data you have, the more accurate the result, but analyzing data from any period of time, no matter how small, is still more accurate than basing it on your feeling.

Source: Case Management Training Monthly, April 2005, HCPro, Inc.



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