Background: We identified a number of quality, patient satisfaction, and staff satisfaction issues that all seemed to be linked to throughput challenges. We had trouble getting patients out of the hospital on discharge day, which set off a number of downstream effects including backups in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Emergency Department (ED). These [...]

Background: Earlier discharge time is an important satisfaction metric for patients, maximizes the utilization of hospital beds, and reduces waste and capacity issues in EDs /PACUs. Overall, early discharge represents high-value care and responsible stewardship of a scarce resource. Our healthcare system assessed the discrepancy between bed demand and bed needs, finding 25% of Tuesday [...]