SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Hospital Length of Stay Reduction by Fair Patient Distribution

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This study examined whether changing how overnight admissions are assigned to hospitalist teams could reduce hospital length of stay (LOS). The authors noted that many hospitals distribute patients evenly each morning, but this may create unequal workload because some teams have more discharges and new admits to manage. They proposed a fairer model: instead of equal morning census for each team, overnight admissions would be distributed evenly across rounding teams, with final census adjustments made to minimize disparities.<br /><br />The pilot was conducted at Saint Michael Medical Center, a 300-bed hospital in Silverdale, Washington. The staffing model included 10 daytime rounding teams, an admitter team, a swing team, and a night team. Over a three-month period, the team documented starting census, counted overnight admissions, and redistributed patients from the bottom up to balance workload.<br /><br />Results suggested improvement in LOS after the intervention. LOS decreased from 7.10 days in December 2022 to 6.56 in January 2023, then remained lower at 5.44 in February and 5.81 in March 2023. However, the project was later stopped because of a system-wide policy requiring geographical rounding, which made the new distribution model difficult to maintain.<br /><br />The authors concluded that fairer workload distribution by balancing overnight admissions may help reduce LOS and could also improve hospitalist burnout and job satisfaction. They caution that more data from other hospitals is needed to determine whether this approach can be widely applied, especially in larger institutions that use geographic rounding.

Asset Subtitle

Maninderjit Singh

Meta Tag

Author List Maninderjit Singh, Sobia Syed, Syed Shah

Category Research

Concept Hospital Length of Stay

Concept Hospital Efficiency

Concept Hospitalist Workload

Concept Hospital Crowding

Concept Complications

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization Saint Michael Medical Center

Presenting Author Maninderjit Singh

Track Quality Improvement

Keywords

hospital length of stay

overnight admissions

hospitalist teams

workload distribution

patient census

rounding teams

hospital operations

pilot study

burnout

job satisfaction

Hospital Length of Stay

Hospital Efficiency

Hospitalist Workload

Hospital Crowding

Complications