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Pass the test: Strategies for improving discharge times

Case Management Weekly, March 14, 2007

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While many patient flow issues contribute to delayed patient stays and late hospital discharges, one of the more correctable issues is patient testing.

Test results often need to be available before a patient can be discharged so it's important to have systems in place, says Mark A. Smith, MD, MBA, FACS, senior consultant for the Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc, in Marblehead, MA.

Smith recommends identifying possible discharges the day before and trying to identify the controlling physician and what type of testing may be necessary.

"You also need to plan the sequencing of testing," says Smith. "Often, one test needs to follow the other and if we don't plan out the sequence correctly a patient can easily end up staying in the hospital an additional day."

According to Bud Pate, REHS, practice director for the Greeley Company, some hospitals have implemented a program called care coordination. This is a strategy where an experienced nurse--sometimes even a charge nurse--is put on a unit to oversee all test sequencing.

Source: Case Management Monthly, April 2007

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