Improving hospital discharge time: a successful implementation of Six Sigma methodology

Increasing and sustaining discharges by noon - a multi-year process improvement project

High hospital occupancy degrades emergency department performance by increasing wait times, decreasing patient satisfaction, and increasing patient morbidity and mortality. Late discharges contribute to high hospital occupancy by increasing emergency department (ED) patient length of stay (LOS). We share our experience with increasing and sustaining early discharges at a 650-bed academic medical center in the United States. Our process improvement project followed the Institute of Medicine Model for Improvement of successive Plan‒Do‒Study‒Act cycles. We implemented multiple iterative interventions over 41 months. As a result, the proportion of discharge orders before 10 am increased from 8.7% at baseline to 22.2% (p < 0.001), and the proportion of discharges by noon (DBN) increased from 9.5% to 26.8% (p < 0.001). There was no increase in balancing metrics because of our interventions. RA-LOS (Risk Adjusted Length Of Stay) decreased from 1.16 to 1.09 (p = 0.01), RA-Mortality decreased from 0.65 to 0.61 (p = 0.62) and RA-Readmissions decreased from 0.92 to 0.74 (p < 0.001). Our study provides a roadmap to large academic facilities to increase and sustain the proportion of patients discharged by noon without negatively impacting LOS, 30-day readmissions, and mortality. Continuous performance evaluation, adaptability to changing resources, multidisciplinary engagement, and institutional buy-in were crucial drivers of our success.

Implementing and Evaluating a Discharge Before Noon Initiative in a Large Tertiary Care Urban Hospital

BACKGROUND

Discharging clinically ready patients before noon on their discharge day may influence overall discharge process quality, emergency department (ED) boarding times, and length of stay (LOS). This study evaluated the effectiveness of a discharge before noon (DBN) initiative.

METHODS

Many DBN components were refined or added during a pilot, including incorporating the DBN process into daily rounds, an electronic tracking system, and other elements for possible DBN patients such as a car service when appropriate and expedited lab results and physical therapy consults. DBN was evaluated through a retrospective pre-post study (12-month periods). Study patients were from Maimonides Medical Center's medicine units. Kaplan-Meier estimates and a log-rank test characterized and compared the discharge time probabilities in pre-DBN and post-DBN groups. Log-logistic accelerated failure time (AFT) analysis assessed the influence of DBN on discharge time. Secondary analyses examined the relationship between LOS and readmission within 30 days for any cause and DBN.

RESULTS

The percentage of patients discharged before noon increased from 5.0% to 11.4% pre/post-DBN (p < 0.001). The AFT analysis estimated that post-DBN patients had discharge times 41.5% earlier (p < 0.001). DBN as an independent factor was not associated with LOS or subsequent readmissions within 30 days for any cause. Despite an increase in the percentage of patients admitted during the daytime (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), the median ED boarding time increased by 41 minutes in post-DBN patients (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The DBN initiative was associated with an increased percentage of patients discharged before noon. Further research is needed to identify strategies that reliably improve discharge timeliness while reducing ED boarding.

Does Rounding Order Bias Discharge Efficiency? Predictors of Discharge Timing on an Academic Urology Service

ABSTRACT

No previous works have analyzed whether the order in which surgical teams see patients on morning rounds affects discharge efficiency at teaching hospitals. We obtained perioperative urologic surgery timing data at our academic institution from 2014 to 2019. We limited the analysis to routine postoperative day 1 discharges. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine whether various hospital and patient factors were associated with discharge timing. We analyzed 1,494 patients. Average discharge order time was 11:22 a.m. and hospital discharge 1:24 p.m. Univariate regression revealed earlier discharge order time for patients seen later in rounds by 4 minutes per sequential room cluster (p = .013) and by 12 minutes per cluster when excluding short-stay patients. Multivariate analysis revealed discharge order placement did not vary significantly by rounding order. However, time of hospital discharge did (p < .001), likely due to speed of discharge in the designated short-stay units. Attending physician was the most consistent predictor in variations of discharge timing, with statistical significance across all measured outcomes. Patients seen later in rounding progression received earlier discharge orders, but this relationship does not remain in multivariate modeling or translate to earlier discharge. These findings have helped guide quality improvement efforts focused on discharge efficiency.

Reducing Crowding in Emergency Departments With Early Prediction of Hospital Admission of Adult Patients Using Biomarkers Collected at Triage: Retrospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

Emergency department crowding continues to threaten patient safety and cause poor patient outcomes. Prior models designed to predict hospital admission have had biases. Predictive models that successfully estimate the probability of patient hospital admission would be useful in reducing or preventing emergency department "boarding" and hospital "exit block" and would reduce emergency department crowding by initiating earlier hospital admission and avoiding protracted bed procurement processes.

OBJECTIVE

To develop a model to predict imminent adult patient hospital admission from the emergency department early in the patient visit by utilizing existing clinical descriptors (ie, patient biomarkers) that are routinely collected at triage and captured in the hospital's electronic medical records. Biomarkers are advantageous for modeling due to their early and routine collection at triage; instantaneous availability; standardized definition, measurement, and interpretation; and their freedom from the confines of patient histories (ie, they are not affected by inaccurate patient reports on medical history, unavailable reports, or delayed report retrieval).

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study evaluated 1 year of consecutive data events among adult patients admitted to the emergency department and developed an algorithm that predicted which patients would require imminent hospital admission. Eight predictor variables were evaluated for their roles in the outcome of the patient emergency department visit. Logistic regression was used to model the study data.

RESULTS

The 8-predictor model included the following biomarkers: age, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, temperature, gender, and acuity level. The model used these biomarkers to identify emergency department patients who required hospital admission. Our model performed well, with good agreement between observed and predicted admissions, indicating a well-fitting and well-calibrated model that showed good ability to discriminate between patients who would and would not be admitted.

CONCLUSIONS

This prediction model based on primary data identified emergency department patients with an increased risk of hospital admission. This actionable information can be used to improve patient care and hospital operations, especially by reducing emergency department crowding by looking ahead to predict which patients are likely to be admitted following triage, thereby providing needed information to initiate the complex admission and bed assignment processes much earlier in the care continuum.

Prolonged Discharge Process in Pediatric Teaching Hospitals

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Influencing Discharge Efficiency: Addressing Interdisciplinary Communication, Transportation, and COVID-19 as Barriers

PURPOSE

At one tertiary, academic medical center, two general medicine units averaged 94% and 97% occupancy causing strain on patient throughput. This project was implemented at these two comparable general medicine units, totaling 64 beds. On each of these units, Pareto analyses on causal factors related to discharge order to exit time (DOTE) were performed. DOTE was defined as the period in minutes from when a provider orders a discharge to when the patient actually exits a room. Prime DOTE reduction opportunities were elicited that highlighted the need to address coordination of hospital discharge transportation; that is, arriving family members averaged 120 and 129 min for the two units, and medicars and ambulances averaged 122 and 156 min, which fell above the established 90-min overall strategic DOTE goal. Coordinating efficient discharges decreases the likelihood of hospital bottlenecking and improves patient satisfaction.

CASE MANAGEMENT SETTING

The health care team is composed of physician and provider services, nursing, and case management, as well as the patient and family. Team-focused interventions aimed at reducing DOTE included leveraging interdisciplinary communication technology and messaging for efficiency and accuracy within the health care team and proactive scheduling of hospital discharge transportation arrival. Process objectives measured included percentage of the health care team educated and utilization of the discharge suite. Outcome objectives measured included median DOTE times, patient satisfaction, and emergency department boarding volume and times. Significantly, admissions for coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) cases were also rapidly increasing early on during program implementation resulting in one of the two general medicine units to be designated for COVID-19 overflow.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Using Lean methodology, the project design was formed based on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's work on improving hospital-wide patient flow and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) IDEAL patient discharge framework to better achieve the well-known, triple aim. In response to COVID-19 demands, the Plan-Do-Study-Act process was warranted to be able to manage acute changes, using iterative processing.

RESULTS AND IMPLICATIONS

This program evaluation study assessed whether a communication training program that taught an interdisciplinary team of case managers, nurses, physicians, and related staff how to reduce DOTE was useful. The program had a material impact on the DOTE metric knowing that the hospital's ultimate strategic goal is to reduce DOTE to 90 min or less. A reduction in discharge time was documented when using weekly data from the hospital's discharge dashboard powered by the Maestro database. More specifically, nurses fully trained in the interdisciplinary communications program aimed to reduce DOTE had significantly lower DOTE outcomes on their discharges compared with untrained staff (i.e., average untrained = 127 min, average trained = 93 min). In addition, the fully trained nurses had 14% more of their discharges fall at or below the 90-min goal compared with untrained staff (i.e., untrained = 40%, trained = 54%). Supplemental research also suggested that the content of the communication training program was very relevant (e.g., empowering families to pick up the patients and using scheduling vs. will-call transportation strategies with patients lowered the DOTE metric). Corollary analyses showed that readmissions were also lowered, and patient satisfaction ratings increased. In addition, the interdisciplinary communications training program can benefit from being updated to include content on how COVID-19 issues adversely impact discharge times since significant relationships between various COVID-19 measures and higher discharge exit times were documented.

The Impact of Hospital Capacity Strain: a Qualitative Analysis of Experience and Solutions at 13 Academic Medical Centers

BACKGROUND

Hospital capacity strain impacts quality of care and hospital throughput and may also impact the well being of clinical staff and teams as well as their ability to do their job. Institutions have implemented a wide array of tactics to help manage hospital capacity strain with variable success.

OBJECTIVE

Through qualitative interviews, our study explored interventions used to address hospital capacity strain and the perceived impact of these interventions, as well as how hospital capacity strain impacts patients, the workforce, and other institutional priorities.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

Qualitative study utilizing semi-structured interviews at 13 large urban academic medical centers across the USA from June 21, 2019, to August 22, 2019 (pre-COVID-19). Interviews were recorded, professionally transcribed verbatim, coded, and then analyzed using a mixed inductive and deductive method at the semantic level.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Themes and subthemes of semi-structured interviews were identified.

RESULTS

Twenty-nine hospitalist leaders and hospital leaders were interviewed. Across the 13 sites, a multitude of provider, care team, and institutional tactics were implemented with perceived variable success. While there was some agreement between hospitalist leaders and hospital leaders, there was also some disagreement about the perceived successes of the various tactics deployed. We found three main themes: (1) hospital capacity strain is complex and difficult to predict, (2) the interventions that were perceived to have worked the best when facing strain were to ensure appropriate resources; however, less costly solutions were often deployed and this may lead to unanticipated negative consequences, and (3) hospital capacity strain and the tactics deployed may negatively impact the workforce and can lead to conflict.

CONCLUSIONS

While institutions have employed many different tactics to manage hospital capacity strain and see this as a priority, tactics seen as having the highest yield are often not the first employed.

Effect of an Attending Nurse on Timeliness of Discharge, Patient Satisfaction, and Readmission

AIMS

To improve the timeliness and quality of discharge for patients by creating the role of the Attending Nurse.

BACKGROUND

Discharge time affects hospital throughput and patient satisfaction. Bedside nurses and hospitalists have competing priorities that can hinder performing timely, high quality discharges.

METHODS

This retrospective analysis evaluated the effect of an Attending Nurse paired with a hospital medicine physician on discharge time and quality. A total of 8329 patient discharges were eligible for the study and propensity score matching yielded 2715 matched pairs.

RESULTS

In the post- intervention matched cohort, the percentage of patients discharged before 2pm increased from 34.4% to 45.9% (p <0.01) and the median discharge time moved 48 minutes earlier. In the unmatched cohort, patient satisfaction with the discharge process improved on several questions. While length of stay was not affected, the 30-day readmission rate did increase from 8.9% to 10.7% (p=0.02).

CONCLUSION

With the new Attending Nurse role, we positively impacted throughput by shifting discharge times earlier in the day while improving patient satisfaction Length of stay stayed the same but the 30-day readmission rate increased.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Our multidisciplinary approach to the problem of late discharge times led to the creation of a new role. This role made ownership of discharge tasks clear and reduced competing priorities, freeing up nurses and hospitalists to perform other care related responsibilities without holding up discharges.

Critical Success Factors for Addressing Discharge Inefficiency at a Large Academic Medical Center: A Lean Six Sigma Approach

BACKGROUND

Delayed discharges can be a systemic issue. Understanding the systemic factors that contribute to discharge inefficiencies is essential to addressing discharge inefficiencies.

PURPOSE

This article reports on a Lean Six Sigma approach and the process to identifying inefficiencies and systemic barriers to early discharge in a large US academic medical center.

METHODS

A qualitative methodology guided this project. In particular, direct observation methods were used to help the project team identify factors contributing to discharge inefficiencies.

RESULTS

Overall, findings suggest that establishing consistent multidisciplinary team communication processes was a contributing factor to reducing the inefficiencies around discharges. On a more granular level, key barriers included disparate communication systems, disruptors (specifically Kaizen bursts), and unique role challenges.

CONCLUSIONS

This article provides a framework for addressing discharge inefficiencies. Because the output of the process, a critical contributor to the overall outcome, is often not analyzed, this analysis provides value to others contemplating the same or similar process toward discharge efficiency.

Using Accountable Care Teams to Improve Timely Discharge: A Pilot Study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Hospitals worldwide are faced with the problem of discharging patients on time. Delayed discharge creates domino effects with significant implications for hospitals. The accountable care team (ACT) is a multidisciplinary, unit-based approach to identifying opportunities to improve patient care and address inefficiencies in care delivery and throughput, including assuring timely discharges. In response to concerns about emergency department boarding times and delays in timely discharge, the ACT recommended a set of strategies to improve communication across team members and to reduce wait times for transportation within and outside the hospital. Collectively these strategies were thought to increase the proportion of patients discharged on time. In this article, we describe and assess changes in timely discharge resulting from the implementation of strategies recommended by the ACT.

METHODS

This study uses a retrospective, quasi-experimental design to compare the percentage of discharges by 1 pm of hospital units implementing the ACT intervention to those units not implementing the intervention. Median discharge time was compared pre- and post-implementation using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. Difference-in-differences modeling was employed to assess whether changes in the percentage of discharges by 1 pm differed between units implementing the intervention and units not implementing the intervention.

RESULTS

One month post-implementation, the percentage discharged by 1 pm was statistically significantly higher for units implementing the intervention (53.6%) compared with comparison units (22.5%, t = -4.48, P < .01). Statistically significant differences in the percentage discharged by 1 pm were also seen at 3 and 6 months post-implementation. The median discharge time showed a statistically significant decrease by 77 minutes from the baseline to intervention period ( P < .01).

CONCLUSION

The result from the study suggests that ACTs can be used to develop approaches aimed at improving patient care in general, and discharge efficiencies in particular. Health care organizations are encouraged to utilize and then evaluate the specific activities of multidisciplinary teams aimed at developing recommendations for practice improvement.

A Quality Improvement Approach to Early Patient Discharge

Lack of bed availability is a common problem in our pediatric unit, as in many hospitals. To address this issue, we instituted a quality improvement (QI) initiative involving collaborative nurse-physician rounding. This intervention has been shown to expedite discharge, improve patient care, and increase bed availability in other settings.

Methods

By utilizing PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) processes, we created two improvement initiatives, "Increasing Patient Discharge Before 12 pm" and "Midnight Rounds with Discharge Focus." Senior resident and faculty physicians rounded on discharge-ready patients before teaching rounds, and by 10 am, placed discharge orders to allow for a 12 pm discharge. A night team consisting of senior residents and nurses conducted "Midnight Rounds" and identified potential discharges for the morning team. The project aimed to increase patient discharges before 12 pm from a June-November 2018 baseline of 15%-20% by June 2019.

Results

Patient discharge percentage before 12 pm increased from 15% to 21% (P < 0.01) by June 2019, and as a result, bed availability increased by 16% (P < 0.01).

Conclusions

QI methodology clarified the root causes of limited bed availability. Understanding the existing discharge process allowed for QI initiatives to develop a consistent and sustainable discharge process. Patient discharge percentages before 12 pm increased by 40%, and bed availability increased by 16% after QI implementations.

When patients get stuck: A systematic literature review on throughput barriers in hospital-wide patient processes

Hospital productivity is of great importance to policymakers, and previous research demonstrates that improved hospital productivity can be achieved by directing more focus towards patient throughput at healthcare organizations. There is also a growing body of literature on patient throughput barriers hampering the flow of patients. These projects rarely, however, encompass complete hospitals. Therefore, this paper provides a systematic literature review on hospital-wide patient process throughput barriers by consolidating the substantial body of studies from single settings into a hospital-wide perspective. Our review yielded a total of 2207 articles, of which 92 were finally selected for analysis. The results reveal long lead times, inefficient capacity coordination and inefficient patient process transfer as the main barriers at hospitals. These are caused by inadequate staffing, lack of standards and routines, insufficient operational planning and a lack in IT functions. As such, this review provides new perspectives on whether the root causes of inefficient hospital patient throughput are related to resource insufficiency or inefficient work methods. Finally, this study develops a new hospital-wide framework to be used by policymakers and healthcare managers when deciding what improvement strategies to follow to increase patient throughput at hospitals.

The Impact of Resident Holdover Admissions on Length of Hospital Stay and Risk of Transfer to an Intensive Care Unit

OBJECTIVE

Implementation of residency duty hour standards has led to adoption of different staffing models, such as the "holdover" model, whereby nighttime teams admit patients and transfer their care to daytime teams who provide ongoing care. In contrast, nonholdover teams at our institution are responsible for both admitting patients and providing ongoing care. We sought to determine whether patients admitted by holdover teams experience worse outcomes than those admitted by nonholdover teams.

METHODS

This is a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to the internal medicine hospital service at a quaternary care hospital from July 2013 to June 2015. Primary outcomes included hospital length of stay (LOS) and transfer to an intensive care unit within 72 hours of admission. Secondary outcomes were any transfer to an intensive care unit, in-hospital mortality, discharge to home (versus discharge to postacute care facility), and readmission to the health system within 30 days of discharge.

RESULTS

We analyzed 5518 encounters, 64% of which were admitted by a holdover team. Outcomes were similar between study groups, except the LOS, which was 5.5 hours longer for holdover encounters in unadjusted analyses (5.18 versus 4.95 days, P = 0.04) but not significantly different in adjusted analyses. The mean discharge time was 4:00 p.m. for both groups, whereas the mean admission times were 12:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. for holdover and nonholdover encounters, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Holdover encounters at our institution were not associated with worse patient safety outcomes. A small increase in LOS may have been attributable to holdover patients having earlier admission and identical discharge times.

Learning from Lean: a quality improvement project using a Lean-based improvement approach to improve discharge for patients with frailty in an acute care hospital

A Lean-based improvement approach was used to complete a quality improvement project (QIP) focused on improving speed and quality of discharge of frail patients on two wards at a large teaching hospital in the UK. This was part of a national initiative to embed continuous improvement within the trust. The aim of the QIP was to improve the proportion of prenoon discharges to 33% of total patients discharged from the ward each day. An 'improvement practice process' followed, which included seven discrete workshops that took the QIP through four distinct phases-understand, design, deliver and sustain. Several improvement methods and tools were used, including value stream mapping and plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles. Ten PDSA cycles were implemented across the clinical areas, including improved planning and data collection of discharge, improved communication between nursing and medical staff, and earlier referrals to community hospitals for discharge. Improved performance was identified through the outcome metric prenoon discharges on both wards, with the average increasing from 8% to 24% on ward X and from 9% to 19% on ward Y, with no other significant change seen in other measures. Pettigrew et al's context-content-process change model was used to structure the learning from the QIP, which included the impact of varying ward contexts, the format of conducting improvement with staff, the importance of organisational support, the need for qualitative measures, agreeing to an apposite aim and the power of involving service users. The original aim of 33% prenoon discharges was not achieved, yet there was clear learning from completing the QIP which could contribute to ongoing improvement work. This identified that the Lean-based improvement approach used was effective to some degree for improving discharge processes. Further focus is required on collecting qualitative data to identify the impact on staff, especially related to behaviour and culture change.

Patients' Satisfaction by SmileInTM Totems in Radiotherapy: A Two-Year Mono-Institutional Experience

Background: Patient’s satisfaction is recognized as an indicator to monitor quality in healthcare services. Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) may contribute to create a benchmark of hospital performance by assessing quality and safety in cancer care. Methods: The areas of interest assessed were: patient-centric welcome perception (PCWP), punctuality, professionalism and comfort using the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology. The RAMSI (Radioterapia Amica Mia SmileIN^{TM (SI)} My Friend Radiotherapy^SI), project provided for the placement of SI totems with four push buttons using HappyOrNot technology in a high-volume radiation oncology (RO) department. The SI technology was implemented in the RO department of the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS. SI totems were installed in different areas of the department. The SI Experience Index was collected, analyzed and compared. Weekly and monthly reports were created showing hourly, daily and overall trends. Results: From October 2017 to November 2019, a total of 42,755 votes were recorded: 8687, 10,431, 18,628 and 5009 feedback items were obtained for PCWP, professionalism, punctuality, and comfort, respectively. All areas obtained a SI-approved rate ≥ 8.0. Conclusions: The implementation of the RAMSI system proved to be doable according to the large amount of feedback items collected in a high-volume clinical department. The application of the LSS methodology led to specific corrective actions such as modification of the call-in-clinic system during operations planning. In order to provide healthcare optimization, a multicentric and multispecialty network should be defined in order to set up a benchmark.

Application of DMAIC Cycle and Modeling as Tools for Health Technology Assessment in a University Hospital

Background

The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is used to evaluate health services, manage healthcare processes more efficiently, and compare medical technologies. The aim of this paper is to carry out an HTA study that compares two pharmacological therapies and provides the clinicians with two models to predict the length of hospital stay (LOS) of patients undergoing oral cavity cancer surgery on the bone tissue.

Methods

The six Sigma method was used as a tool of HTA; it is a technique of quality management and process improvement that combines the use of statistics with a five-step procedure: “Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control” referred to in the acronym DMAIC. Subsequently, multiple linear regression has been used to create two models. Two groups of patients were analyzed: 45 were treated with ceftriaxone while 48 were treated with the combination of cefazolin and clindamycin.

Results

A reduction of the overall mean LOS of patients undergoing oral cavity cancer surgery on bone was observed of 40.9% in the group treated with ceftriaxone. Its reduction was observed in all the variables of the ceftriaxone group. The best results are obtained in younger patients (−54.1%) and in patients with low oral hygiene (−52.4%) treated. The regression results showed that the best LOS predictors for cefazolin/clindamycin are ASA score and flap while for ceftriaxone, in addition to these two, oral hygiene and lymphadenectomy are the best predictors. In addition, the adjusted R squared showed that the variables considered explain most of the variance of LOS.

Conclusion

SS methodology, used as an HTA tool, allowed us to understand the performance of the antibiotics and provided variables that mostly influence postoperative LOS. The obtained models can improve the outcome of patients, reducing the postoperative LOS and the relative costs, consequently increasing patient safety, and improving the quality of care provided.

Reducing Time to Discharge after Chemotherapy by Standardizing Workflow and Providing Outpatient Intravenous Hydration

Introduction

Patients receiving cyclophosphamide or ifosfamide chemotherapy require intravenous fluid hydration to prevent hemorrhagic cystitis. In selected patients without medical contraindications (ie, excess nausea/vomiting), this hydration may be completed after discharge. We aimed to reduce the time to discharge after completing mesna in patients receiving cyclophosphamide or ifosfamide therapy on an inpatient chemotherapy service.

Methods

The quality improvement team performed a medical record review to capture the time to discharge after mesna therapy and the readmission rate and used quality improvement methods to redesign discharge workflow and increase patient involvement with the discharge process.

Results

From August 2017 through July 2018, there were 160 admission encounters (73 patients) for cyclophosphamide or ifosfamide on a dedicated chemotherapy service. Of those encounters, 89 (55.6%) were appropriate for outpatient hydration; 48 (53.9%) of these encounters involved a patient who elected to receive outpatient hydration. Although the median time to discharge for the whole cohort did not change, in encounters where patients chose intravenous outpatient hydration, the median time to discharge was reduced from 2.82 to 0.66 hours (76.6% reduction) after implementing the new discharge workflow. No patients experienced readmission within 48 hours.

Conclusions

Discharge workflow redesign and standardization reduced the time to discharge after chemotherapy in patients who chose outpatient hydration. Outpatient intravenous hydration after cyclophosphamide or ifosfamide appears safe and feasible in selected patient populations.

Morning Discharges and Patient Length of Stay in Inpatient General Internal Medicine

BACKGROUND

Many initiatives seek to increase the number of morning hospital discharges to improve patient flow, but little evidence supports this practice.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the association between the number of morning discharges and emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) and hospital LOS in general internal medicine (GIM).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

Multicenter retrospective cohort study involving all GIM patients discharged between April 1, 2010, and October 31, 2017, at seven hospitals in Ontario, Canada.

MAIN MEASURES

The primary outcomes were ED LOS and hospital LOS, and secondary outcomes were 30-day readmission and in-hospital mortality. The number of morning GIM discharges (defined as the number of patients discharged alive between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM) on the day of each hospital admission was the primary exposure. Multivariable regression models were fit to control for patient characteristics and situational factors, including GIM census.

RESULTS

The sample included 189,781 patient admissions. In total, 36,043 (19.0%) discharges occurred between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM. The average daily number of morning discharges and total discharges per hospital was 1.7 (SD, 1.4) and 8.4 (SD, 4.6), respectively. The median ED LOS was 14.5 hours (interquartile range [IQR], 10.0- 23.1), and the median hospital LOS was 4.6 days (IQR, 2.4-9.0). After multivariable adjustment, there was not a significant association between morning discharge and hospital LOS (adjusted rate ratio [aRR], 1.000; 95% CI, 0.996-1.000; P = .997), ED LOS (aRR, 0.999; 95% CI, 0.997-1.000; P = .307), 30-day readmission (aRR, 1.010; 95% CI, 0.991-1.020; P = .471), or in-hospital mortality (aRR, 0.967; 95% CI, 0.920-1.020; P = .183). The lack of association between morning discharge and LOS was generally consistent across all seven hospitals. At one hospital, morning discharge was associated with a 1.9% shorter ED LOS after multivariable adjustment (aRR, 0.981; 95% CI, 0.966-0.996; P = .013).

CONCLUSIONS

The number of morning discharges was not significantly associated with shorter ED LOS or hospital LOS in GIM. Our findings suggest that increasing the number of morning discharges alone is unlikely to substantially improve patient throughput in GIM, but further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of specific interventions.

The processes of hospital discharge and recovery after blunt thoracic injuries: The patient's perspective

AIMS

The aim of this study was to explore hospital discharge processes and the self-management of recovery in the early post-discharge period after blunt thoracic injury from a patient perspective.

DESIGN

Qualitative interview study.

METHODS

Interviews were conducted with participants recruited from 8 sites across England and Wales between November 2019-May 2020. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between 5-8 weeks after hospital discharge, and in total, 14 interviews were undertaken. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic coding.

RESULTS

Three main themes were identified from the analysis: (a) challenges in the discharge process, (b) coping at home after discharge and (c) managing medications at home. Pain was a dominant thread running throughout all themes which represented an important quality and safety concern for all participants. Associated concerns included insufficient preparation and education for hospital discharge, ineffective communication and subsequent unsafe use of opioids at home highlighting unmet patient care needs.

Initiatives for improving delayed discharge from a hospital setting: a scoping review

OBJECTIVE

The overarching objective of the scoping review was to examine peer reviewed and grey literature for best practices that have been developed, implemented and/or evaluated for delayed discharge involving a hospital setting. Two specific objectives were to review what the delayed discharge initiatives entailed and identify gaps in the literature in order to inform future work.

DESIGN

Scoping review.

METHODS

Electronic databases and websites of government and healthcare organisations were searched for eligible articles. Articles were required to include an initiative that focused on delayed discharge, involve a hospital setting and be published between 1 January 2004 and 16 August 2019. Data were extracted using Microsoft Excel. Following extraction, a policy framework by Doern and Phidd was adapted to organise the included initiatives into categories: (1) information sharing; (2) tools and guidelines; (3) practice changes; (4) infrastructure and finance and (5) other.

RESULTS

Sixty-six articles were included in this review. The majority of initiatives were categorised as practice change (n=36), followed by information sharing (n=19) and tools and guidelines (n=19). Numerous initiatives incorporated multiple categories. The majority of initiatives were implemented by multidisciplinary teams and resulted in improved outcomes such as reduced length of stay and discharge delays. However, the experiences of patients and families were rarely reported. Included initiatives also lacked important contextual information, which is essential for replicating best practices and scaling up.

CONCLUSIONS

This scoping review identified a number of initiatives that have been implemented to target delayed discharges. While the majority of initiatives resulted in positive outcomes, delayed discharges remain an international problem. There are significant gaps and limitations in evidence and thus, future work is warranted to develop solutions that have a sustainable impact.

Examining the impact of an asynchronous communication platform versus existing communication methods: an observational study

BACKGROUND

Healthcare systems revolve around intricate relations between humans and technology. System efficiency depends on information exchange that occur on synchronous and asynchronous platforms. Traditional synchronous methods of communication may pose risks to workflow integrity and contribute to inefficient service delivery and medical care.

AIM

To compare synchronous methods of communication to Medic Bleep, an instant messaging asynchronous platform, and observe its impact on clinical workflow, quality of work life and associations with patient safety outcomes and hospital core operations.

METHODS

Cohorts of healthcare professionals were followed using the Time Motion Study methodology over a 2-week period, using both the asynchronous platform and the synchronous methods like the non-cardiac pager. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted to identify staff attitudes towards both platforms.

RESULTS

A statistically significant figure (p<0.01) of 20.1 minutes' reduction in average task completion was seen with asynchronous communication, saving 58.8% of time when compared with traditional synchronous methods. In subcategory analysis for staff: doctors, nurses and midwifery categories, a p value of <0.0495 and <0.01 were observed; a mean time reduction with statistical significance was also seen in specific task efficiencies of 'To-Take-Out (TTO), patient review, discharge & patient transfer and escalation of care & procedure'. The platform was favoured with an average Likert value of 8.7; 67% found it easy to implement.

CONCLUSION

The asynchronous platform improved clinical communication compared with synchronous methods, contributing to efficiencies in workflow and may positively affect patient care.

Assessing the Impact of Lean Healthcare on Inpatient Care: A Systematic Review

Healthcare services are facing challenges in increasing their efficiency, quality of care, and coping with surges in demand. To this end, some hospitals have implemented lean healthcare. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the effects of lean healthcare (LH) interventions on inpatient care and determine whether patient flow and efficiency outcomes improve. The review was performed according to PRISMA. We used six databases to search for studies published from 2002 to 2019. Out of 5732 studies, 39 measuring one or more defined outcomes were included. Hospital length of stay (LOS) was measured in 23 studies, 16 of which reported a reduction, turnover time (TOT) decreased in six out of eight studies, while the turnaround time (TAT) and on-time starts (OTS) improved in all five and seven studies, respectively. Moreover, eight out of nine studies reported an earlier discharge time, and the boarding time decreased in all four cases. Meanwhile, the readmission rate did not increase in all nine studies. Lastly, staff and patient satisfaction improved in all eight studies. Our findings show that by focusing on reducing non-value-added activities, LH contributed to improving patient flow and efficiency within inpatient care.

Optimal local anesthetic regimen for saddle block in ambulatory anorectal surgery: an evidence-based systematic review

BACKGROUND

Ambulatory anorectal surgery requires an anesthetic of short duration but profound depth. Saddle block anesthesia (SBA) can provide dense sacral anesthesia with minimal motor blockade, but the ideal local anesthetic agent remains undefined. This systematic review aims to identify the optimal SBA regimen for ambulatory anorectal surgery.

METHODS

We sought randomized trials examining SBA for ambulatory anorectal surgery and stratified patients into four subgroups according to local anesthetic type and dose: (1) longer acting, higher dose; (2) longer acting, lower dose; (3) shorter acting, higher dose; and (4) shorter acting, lower dose. Longer acting agents included bupivacaine and levobupivacaine; shorter acting agents included chloroprocaine, mepivacaine, and prilocaine. Lower dose was defined as ≤5 mg and ≤20 mg for longer and shorter acting local anesthetics, respectively. The primary outcome was time to discharge; secondary outcomes included times to sensory and motor block regression, urine voiding, and ambulation, as well as block success.

RESULTS

A total of 11 trials (1063 patients) were included. Overall study quality and reporting consistency was poor. Doses ranged from 1.5-7.5 mg to 3-30 mg of longer and shorter acting local anesthetics, respectively. Hyperbaric local anesthetics were used in eight trials (953 patients, 86%). The median time to discharge appeared similar across all subgroups with an overall time of 182 (IQR 102) min. The use of long-acting, lower dose regimens was associated with a faster median time to motor block regression. Block success approached 99% among all trials.

CONCLUSIONS

There is presently insufficient qualitative and quantitative evidence to identify an optimal SBA regimen for ambulatory anorectal surgery. Nonetheless, we found that doses as low as 1.5 and 3 mg of longer and shorter acting hyperbaric local anesthetics, respectively, can achieve effective and reliable SBA with timely hospital discharge. Despite similar discharge times, longer acting, lower dose local anesthetics may produce faster motor block regression following SBA for ambulatory anorectal surgery.

A health technology assessment between two pharmacological therapies through Six Sigma: the case study of bone cancer

Purpose

Head and neck cancers are multi-factorial diseases that can affect many sides of people's life and are due to a lot of risk factors. According to their characteristics, the treatment can be surgical, use of radiation or chemotherapy. The use of a surgical treatment can lead to surgical infections that are a main theme in medicine. At the University hospital of Naples “Federico II”, two antibiotics were employed to tackle the issue of the infections and they are compared in this paper to find which one implies the lowest length of hospital stay (LOS) and the reduction of infections.

Design/methodology/approach

The Six Sigma methodology and its problem-solving strategy DMAIC (define, measure, analyse, improve, control), already employed in the healthcare sector, were used as a tool of a health technology assessment between two drugs. In this paper the DMAIC roadmap is used to compare the Ceftriaxone (administered to a group of 48 patients) and the association of Cefazolin plus Clindamycin (administered to a group of 45 patients).

Findings

The results show that the LOS of patients treated with Ceftriaxone is lower than those who were treated with the association of Cefazolin plus Clindamycin, the difference is about 41%. Moreover, a lower number of complications and infections was found in patients who received Ceftriaxone. Finally, a greater number of antibiotic shifts was needed by patients treated with Cefazolin plus Clindamycin.

Research limitations/implications

While the paper enhances clearly the advantages for patients' outcomes regarding the LOS and the number of complications, it did not analyse the costs of the two antibiotics.

Practical implications

Employing the Ceftriaxone would allow the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery to obtain lower LOS and a limited number of complications/infections for recovered patients, consequently reducing the hospitalization costs.

Originality/value

There is a double value in this paper: first of all, the comparison between the two antibiotics gives an answer to one of the main issues in medicine that is the reduction of hospital-acquired infections; secondly, the Six Sigma through its DMAIC cycle can be employed also to compare two biomedical technologies as a tool of health technology assessment studies.

The Distributions of Weekday Discharge Times at Acute Care Hospitals in the State of Florida were Static from 2010 to 2018

When hospital capacity is near census, either due to limits on the number of physical or staffed beds, delays in patients' discharge can result in domino effects of congestion for the emergency department, the intensive care units, the postanesthesia care unit, and the operating room. Hospital administrators often promote increasing the percentage of patients discharged before noon as mitigation. However, benchmark data from multiple hospitals are lacking. We studied the time of weekday inpatient discharges from all 202 acute care hospitals in the state of Florida between 2010 and 2018 using publicly available data. Statewide, the average length of stay (4.63 days) did not change, but hospital discharges increased 6.1%. There was no change over years in the percentage of patients discharged before 12 noon (13.0% ± 0.28% standard error [SE]) or before 3 PM (42.2% ± 0.25% SE). For every year, the median hour of patient discharge was 3 PM. Only 9 of the 202 hospitals (4.5%) reliably achieved a morning weekday discharge rate ≥ 20.0%. Only 19 hospitals (9.4%) in the state reliably achieved a ≥ 50.0% weekday discharge rate before 3 PM. Hospital administrators seeking to achieve earlier patient discharges can use our provided data as realistic benchmarks to guide efforts. Alternatively, administrators could plan based on a model that beds will not be reliably available for new patients until late in the afternoon and apply other well-developed operational strategies to address bottlenecks affecting the internal transfer of patients within the hospital.

Oral Hypertonic Saline Is Effective in Reversing Acute Mild-to-Moderate Symptomatic Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia

OBJECTIVES

To determine whether oral administration of 3% hypertonic saline (HTS) is as efficacious as intravenous (IV) 3% saline in reversing symptoms of mild-to-moderate symptomatic exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH) in athletes during and after a long-distance triathlon.

DESIGN

Noninferiority, open-label, parallel-group, randomized control trial to IV or oral HTS. We used permuted block randomization with sealed envelopes, containing the word either "oral" or "IV."

SETTING

Annual long-distance triathlon (3.8-km swim, 180-km bike, and 42-km run) at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada.

PARTICIPANTS

Twenty race finishers with mild to moderately symptomatic EAH.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

Age, sex, race finish time, and 9 clinical symptoms.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Time from treatment to discharge.

METHODS

We successfully randomized 20 participants to receive either an oral (n = 11) or IV (n = 9) bolus of HTS. We performed venipuncture to measure serum sodium (Na) at presentation to the medical clinic and at time of symptom resolution after the intervention.

RESULTS

The average time from treatment to discharge was 75.8 minutes (SD 29.7) for the IV treatment group and 50.3 minutes (SD 26.8) for the oral treatment group (t test, P = 0.02). Serum Na before and after treatment was not significantly different in both groups. There was no difference on presentation between groups in age, sex, or race finish time, both groups presented with an average of 6 symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Oral HTS is effective in reversing symptoms of mild-to-moderate hyponatremia in EAH.

Day of the Week of Surgery Affects Time to Discharge for Patients With Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Unnecessary delays in discharge are extraordinarily common in the current US health care system. These delays are even more protracted for patients undergoing orthopedic procedures. A traditional hospital staffing model is heavily weighted toward increased resources on weekdays and minimal coverage on the weekend. This study examined the effect of this traditional staffing model on time to discharge for patients undergoing posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Patients undergoing surgery later in the week had a significantly longer hospital stay compared with patients undergoing surgery early in the week (5.5 days vs 4.9 days, respectively; P=.003). This discrepancy resulted in a mean cost increase of $7749.50 for patients undergoing surgery later in the week. A subsequent quality, safety, value initiative (QSVI) was undertaken to balance physical therapy resources alone. Following the QSVI, patients undergoing surgery later in the week had a decreased mean length of stay of 3.78 days (P=.002). Patients undergoing fusion early in the week also had a decreased mean length of stay of 3.66 days (P<.001). There was no longer a significant difference in length of stay between the "early" and the "late" groups (P=.84). This study demonstrates that simply having surgery later in the week in a hospital with a traditional staffing model adversely affects the timing of discharge, resulting in a significantly longer and more costly hospital course. By increasing physical therapy availability on the weekend, the length of stay and the cost of hospitalization decrease precipitously for these patients. [Orthopedics. 2020; 43(1);8-12.].

Impact of a Quality Improvement Initiative to Optimize the Discharge Process of Pediatric Gastroenterology Patients at an Academic Children's Hospital

Discharge is an important and complex process that can be optimized to reduce inpatient healthcare inefficiency and waste. This study aimed to increase the percentage of patients discharged before 1 pm by 20% from an academic inpatient pediatric gastroenterology service (IPGS), over 6 months.

Quality improvement strategies improve pediatric neurology inpatient discharges before noon

Background

Early hospital discharge is an important quality improvement (QI) measure that has not been well studied in pediatric neurology. The objective of our study was to implement strategies to improve hospital discharge times for patients admitted to the pediatric neurology service.

Methods

This was a pilot QI study of hospital discharge before noon (DBN) in pediatric neurology patients admitted to a tertiary care children's hospital. The study duration was 6 months (12/2017-05/2018)-first 3 months preintervention and next 3 months postintervention. Strategies focusing on preidentifying MRI candidates and those needing home care services, identifying pharmacy preference, reviewing overnight video EEGs first thing in the morning, and implementing morning huddles, etc., were implemented. Demographic and clinical data were collected, including age, sex, race, and reasons for delay in discharge. Chi-square, t test, and survival analysis (log-rank test) were performed to determine differences between baseline and post-QI implementation.

Results

One hundred ninety-one patients were included in the study. There were 76 participants before the implementation of the study and 115 participants during the study. DBN percentage increased in the intervention period, from a baseline of 40.7% to 60.8%. Survival analysis showed that the discharge time after QI implementation improved significantly (p = 0.043).

Conclusions

Our study successfully identified the factors associated with late discharge and developed effective strategies to improve DBN in an inpatient pediatric neurology setting.

Comparison of algorithm advice for post-acute care referral to usual clinical decision-making: examination of 30-day acute healthcare utilization

Objective: Compare patient characteristics and acute healthcare utilization between patients identified as in need of post-acute care (PAC) by the clinical decision support (CDS) algorithm yet were discharged home without services, to those where the CDS and hospital clinicians agreed on no referral. Methods: Retrospective analysis of hospital administrative and clinical data for 1,366 patients. Results: 30-day acute healthcare utilization rates are significantly higher for those patients flagged as in need of PAC referral. There are also significant differences in patient characteristics based on referral risk. Discussion: Clinicians were blinded to the algorithm enabling the comparison of usual care to decision support. Future work will examine the effect of sharing algorithm advice with clinicians on PAC referral rates and utilization. Conclusion: The CDS algorithm clearly identified patients with high-risk characteristics and those who will go on to utilize acute care resources. Providing CDS to discharge planners may improve patient outcomes.

Bedside nurses' roles in discharge collaboration in general internal medicine: Disconnected, disempowered and devalued?

Collaboration among nurses and other healthcare professionals is needed for effective hospital discharge planning. However, interprofessional interactions and practices related to discharge vary within and across hospitals. These interactions are influenced by the ways in which healthcare professionals' roles are being shaped by hospital discharge priorities. This study explored the experience of bedside nurses' interprofessional collaboration in relation to discharge in a general medicine unit. An ethnographic approach was employed to obtain an in-depth insight into the perceptions and practices of nurses and other healthcare professionals regarding collaborative practices around discharge. Sixty-five hours of observations was undertaken, and 23 interviews were conducted with nurses and other healthcare professionals. According to our results, bedside nurses had limited engagement in interprofessional collaboration and discharge planning. This was apparent by bedside nurses' absence from morning rounds, one-way flow of information from rounds to the bedside nurses following rounds, and limited opportunities for interaction with other healthcare professionals and decision-making during the day. The disconnection, disempowerment and devaluing of bedside nurses in patient discharge planning has implications for quality of care and nursing work. Study findings are positioned within previous work on nurse-physician interactions and the current context of nursing care.

Health services in Trinidad: throughput, throughput challenges, and the impact of a throughput intervention on overcrowding in a public health institution

Background

Throughput might be partially responsible for sub-optimum organisational and medical outcomes. The present study examined throughput and the challenges to ensuring optimum throughput in hospitals, and determined the effectiveness of a throughput intervention in reducing overcrowding in a public healthcare institution in Trinidad and Tobago.

Methods

First, a literature review of throughput and its processes in relation to improving hospital care was conducted. Second, the challenges to throughput in healthcare were reviewed. Data were also collected from print media, hospital records, and the central statistical office in Trinidad and Tobago to discuss throughput and describe the throughput status in hospitals. Finally, the effect of a throughput intervention on overcrowding was determined. The intervention was implemented over six months, from October 2010 to March 2011, and comprised three stages of a five-stage throughput process: transferring patients to a specific medical ward, bedside electrocardiograms (ECG), and promptly obtaining patient investigative reports and patient files.

Results

Problems with the throughput process led to prolonged delays or failures in obtaining lab reports, radiology services, ECGs, and pharmaceutical supplies, as well as inadequate social work services and other specialised services. During the throughput intervention, there was a reduction in overcrowding/overflow to 5–10 patients per day with a daily admission rate of 58. However, at post-intervention, there was increased overcrowding/overflow to 20–30 per day but fewer admissions (52 per day) i.e. similar to pre-intervention period. Additionally, there was an increase in bed complement in the department of medicine from 209 (2011) to 227 (2012). Overcrowding continued into 2016 and beyond: medical admissions in 2016 were 46.4 per day and the medical bed capacity was 327 (indicating a 44% increase in capacity from 2012).

Conclusion

Hospital throughput processes are currently suboptimum. Improving specific throughput processes or targeting the greatest primary constraints might help decrease overcrowding.

Improving Emergency Department radiology transportation time: a successful implementation of lean methodology

Background

Emergency Department overcrowding has become a global problem and a growing safety and quality concern. Radiology and laboratory turnaround time, ED boarding and increased ED visits are some of the factors that contribute to ED overcrowding. Lean methods have been used in the ED to address multiple flow challenges from improving door-to-doctor time to reducing length of stay. The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of using Lean management methods on improving Emergency Department transportation times for plain radiography.

Methods

We performed a before and after study at an academic urban Emergency Department with 49,000 annual visits after implementing a Lean driven intervention. The primary outcome was mean radiology transportation turnaround time (TAT). Secondary outcomes included overall study turnaround time from order processing to preliminary report time as well as ED length of stay. All ED patients undergoing plain radiography 6 months pre-intervention were compared to all ED patients undergoing plain radiography 6 months post-intervention after a 1 month washout period.

Results

Post intervention there was a statistically significant decrease in the mean transportation TAT (mean ± SD: 9.87 min ± 15.05 versus 22.89 min ± 22.05, respectively, p-value <0.0001). In addition, it was found that 71.6% of patients in the post-intervention had transportation TAT ≤ 10 min, as compared to 32.3% in the pre-intervention period, p-value <0.0001, with narrower interquartile ranges in the post-intervention period. Similarly, the “study processing to preliminary report time” and the length of stay were lower in the post-intervention as compared to the pre-intervention, (52.50 min ± 35.43 versus 54.04 min ± 34.72, p-value = 0.02 and 3.65 h ± 5.17 versus 4.57 h ± 10.43, p < 0.0001, respectively), in spite of an increase in the time it took to elease a preliminary report in the post-intervention period.

Conclusion

Using Lean change management techniques can be effective in reducing transportation time to plain radiography in the Emergency Department as well as improving process reliability.

Applying Lean Six Sigma methodology to reduce cesarean section rate

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to reduce cesarean section rate and increase rate of vaginal delivery.

METHODS

By using Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology, the cesarean section rate was investigated and analyzed through a 5-phase roadmap consisting of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. The principal causes of cesarean section were identified, improvement measures were implemented, and the rate of cesarean section before and after intervention was compared.

RESULTS

After patients with a valid medical reason for cesarean were excluded, the main causes of cesarean section were maternal request, labor pain, parturient women assessment, and labor observation. A series of measures was implemented, including an improved parturient women assessment system, strengthened pregnancy nutrition guidance, implementation of painless labor techniques, enhanced midwifery team building, and promotion of childbirth-assist skills. Ten months after introduction of the improvement measures, the cesarean section rate decreased from 41.83% to 32.00%, and the Six Sigma score (ie, Z value) increased from 1.706 to 1.967 (P < .001).

CONCLUSION

LSS is an effective way to reduce the rate of cesarean section.

Lean intervention improves patient discharge times, improves emergency department throughput and reduces congestion

OBJECTIVE

To determine if a lean intervention improved emergency department (ED) throughput and reduced ED boarding by improving patient discharge efficiency from a tertiary care children's hospital.

METHODS

The study was conducted at a tertiary care children's hospital to study the impact lean that changes made to an inpatient pediatric service line had on ED efficiency. Discharge times from the general pediatrics' service were compared to patients discharged from all other pediatric subspecialty services. The intervention was multifaceted. First, team staffing reconfiguration permitted all discharge work to be done at the patient's bedside using a new discharge checklist. The intervention also incorporated an afternoon interdisciplinary huddle to work on the following day's discharges. Retrospectively, we determined the impact this had on median times of discharge order entry, patient discharge, and percent of patients discharged before noon. As a marker of ED throughput, we determined median hour of day that admitted patients left the ED to move to their hospital bed. As marker of ED congestion we determined median boarding times.

RESULTS

For the general pediatrics service line, the median discharge order entry time decreased from 1:43pm to 11:28am (p < 0.0001) and the median time of discharge decreased from 3:25pm to 2:25pm (p < 0.0001). The percent of patients discharged before noon increased from 14.0% to 26.0% (p < 0.0001). The discharge metrics remained unchanged for the pediatric subspecialty services group. Median ED boarding time decreased by 49 minutes (p < 0.0001). As a result, the median time of day admitted patients were discharged from the ED was advanced from 5 PM to 4 PM.

CONCLUSION

Lean principles implemented by one hospital service line improved patient discharge times enhanced patient ED throughput, and reduced ED boarding times.

What Can Emergency Medicine Learn From Kinetics: Introducing an Alternative Evaluation and a Universal Criterion Standard for Emergency Department Performance

This research focuses on developing an improved and robust measurement for emergency department (ED) performance and a criterion standard for global use via kinetic analysis. Based on kinetic approach, the input-throughput-output conceptual model of ED crowding is compared to the procedure of enzyme catalysis. All in average, the retented patients in EDs are defined as substrate (S), whereas the patients who depart the EDs as product (P). Therefore, the average ED departure velocity (V) can be presented as (P)divided by a given time (t) of the ED length of stay (LOS). The S-V and S²-P plots are depicted hourly for the kinetic analysis. The long-term stability of the kinetic parameters is ascertained by the method of coefficient of variation (CV). The participants collected for this study are from the EDs of Changhua Christian Medical Center and the five branched hospitals, all located in Taiwan. Based on the S-V plot analysis, the results clearly show 2 curves, an upper and a lower curve. The timeline of the lower curve includes approximately the total ED busy hours, and thus it can be used for the subsequent kinetic analysis. In order to explore the adequate kinetic parameters for ED performance, the try-and-error process was followed in this study. As a result, the S²-V plots adapted from the lower curves show the best linear regression of S² on V with a good coefficient of determination (R). The Pan-Wen constant (PW), which is the slope of the liner regression line, and the ED medical personnel unit turnover number (EDMPU TON) were deduced from the kinetic meanings of (Equation is included in full-text article.)plots. In this research, the 2 kinetic parameters, PW and EDMPU TON were applied for the ED performance evaluations. An innovative relationship between the ED retented patients and the ED departure velocity is verified as PW; whereas, a feasible kinetic parameter, the EDMPU TON explicates the teamwork efficiency of the ED providers. Moreover, the EDMPU TON may not only be a reliable universal criterion standard for the ED performance, but also a valuable reference for both ED providers and payers.