Background: Identifying discharge barriers, reducing length of stay (LOS) and optimizing the observed over expected (O/E) ratio for LOS are crucial in healthcare management. Addressing obstacles—DME needs, medical issues, diagnostic/procedure delays, administrative hurdles—can streamline discharge, enhancing outcomes, optimizing resources, cutting costs, and improving hospital efficiency. Effective discharge planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and patient education are vital [...]

Background: Discharge delays are associated with excessive costs to healthcare systems and poor patient outcomes. We sought to identify perceived barriers to timely discharge within and outside the control of hospitalists from the multidisciplinary team pivotal to the discharge process, and if different professionals noted different barriers. Methods: In June 2024, we surveyed hospitalist physicians/advanced [...]

Background: Length of stay is an important marker for quality of care in the hospital. Increased length of stay can affect patient flow through the hospital and can lead to overcrowding, increased boarding in the emergency department, delays in inter-hospital transfer, and cancellation of elective procedures due to bed availability (1). In addition, longer hospitalizations [...]

Background: Since 2020, UNC Hospitals has increasing numbers of patients who no longer require acute level of care. A portion of these patients have longer length of stay exceeding 30 days while awaiting disposition. This is noticeable in our percentage of long length of stay patients hospitalized 31-60 days (6.8% in 2022 vs 6.0% in [...]