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In the first year of Saint Luke Hospital's initiative to improve throughput for long-stay patients, the length of stay for those patients dropped by 0.5 days and the number of avoidable days dropped from 160 in 2006 to 90 in 2007.
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At the end of a project to improve throughput in the emergency department, the length of stay for patients with low-risk chest pain dropped from an average of more than 30 hours to an average of between 20 and 24 hours at two hospitals in the Sharp HealthCare system.
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At California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles "we never want [staff] to say, 'We do not have any beds,'" says Elizabeth Oliver, director for access care for the facility, which is part of Catholic Healthcare West (CHW).
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Two new auditing processes and a script for "introducing" discharge planners to their patients are the latest innovations at Stevens Hospital in Edmunds, WA, part of its response to the revised "Important Message from Medicare" (IM).
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Unnecessary hospital readmissions can be avoided by a "whole-family" approach to discharge planning. Medicare requirements and The Joint Commission focus on evaluating and meeting the patient's needs, yet engagement and active participation of the family or lay caregivers also is central to improving the patient's transition from hospital to home.
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When a patient is admitted to the hospital with a chronic condition such as pain, one of the key elements of assessment is to determine what medications including prescriptions drugs and nonprescription medications and supplements the individual is taking. It is not uncommon for some patients, particularly older adults, to take 10 or more prescription medications a day.
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Instead of handing patients piles of papers during the discharge planning process, case managers and social workers at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ, simply refer them to the hospital's Valley C.A.R.E.S. web site, a resource with links to more than 2,000 agencies, facilities, organizations, and informational sites.
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Millions of Americans live with chronic conditions: diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, pain, and myriad other illnesses and injuries. When chronic conditions worsen or unrelated acute episodes occur, hospitalization may become necessary.
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If your case management department isn't involved in the business side of health care, you're missing opportunities to affect your hospital's bottom line and to ensure that your patients get the most effective, cost-efficient care.
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Pregnant women who come to the ED with abdominal pain often are misdiagnosed and undergo unnecessary appendectomies, says a new study.