SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Successful Hospitalist Engagement in Length of Stay Reduction

Pdf Summary

This abstract describes a hospital medicine quality improvement effort at an academic medical center aimed at reducing inpatient length of stay (LoS) while improving hospitalist satisfaction. After the pandemic, the team experienced longer LoS and lower morale, so leaders implemented a multifaceted engagement strategy from October 2021 to October 2023.<br /><br />Key interventions included surveying hospitalists to identify clinical and nonclinical discharge barriers, building Epic dashboards and Vizient benchmarking reports, and tracking opportunity days by diagnosis. The team also created real-time communication tools for discharge delays, assigned responsibility to appropriate support teams to remove barriers, and optimized workload by limiting rounding assignments and separating rounding from admissions. Additional steps included regular team meetings, newsletters, leadership-driven improvement work, collaboration with other specialties on high-opportunity diagnoses, and investment in programs such as remote patient monitoring, procedures support, and disease-specific initiatives.<br /><br />The results were positive. The hospital’s Vizient LoS Index improved from worse than median in 2022 to top decile in 2023. Team satisfaction increased by 20 points between fall 2021 and 2022 and remained improved in 2023, despite ongoing staffing challenges and flat compensation benchmarking.<br /><br />The authors conclude that hospitalist engagement, supported by data transparency, operational tools, workload optimization, and leadership backing, can improve both efficiency and clinician satisfaction.

Asset Subtitle

Beth Makowski

Meta Tag

Author List Beth Makowski, Heidi Taylor, Thomas Warnshuis

Category Innovations

Concept Hospitalist Engagement

Concept Length of Stay

Concept Clinical Barrier

Concept Non-medical Barrier

Concept Workload

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization Corewell Health

Presenting Author Beth Makowski

Track Value in Hospital Medicine

Keywords

hospital medicine

quality improvement

length of stay

hospitalist satisfaction

discharge barriers

Epic dashboards

Vizient benchmarking

workload optimization

patient discharge

clinician engagement

Hospitalist Engagement

Length of Stay

Clinical Barrier

Non-medical Barrier

Workload