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Performance indicators of poor patient throughput

Case Management Weekly, September 18, 2007

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Poor patient throughput is common in hospitals throughout the country. Large and small, rural and urban emergency departments are overcrowded, beds are scarce, space is limited, and quality of care and customer service ratings are significantly down.

Overcrowding directly results in diversion, which immediately affects the bottom line. But there are new best-practice approaches, such as admissions units, that can help you relieve this gridlock. The first step is to measure the following key performance indicators to determine the severity of the problem within your organization:

• The hours that your facility is on diversion
• Admissions
• Average LOS for general acute care
• Noon occupancy
• Wait times for inpatient beds
• Average discharge time

You should then evaluate how poor patient throughput affects the bottom line to evaluate long-term solutions. You may decide to add more beds and staff members at increased costs or manage throughput by decreasing your patients' LOS. But before you make any definite decisions, you should schedule cross-departmental meetings to discuss the capacity management from everyone's viewpoint.

Source: Case Management Monthly, September 2007, HCPro, Inc.

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