Post Preview
Are you looking for a way to increase the bed capacity of your hospital? The more patients you can see in a given year, the more money your hospital can generate. Even though this means you need to get patients in and out as quickly as possible, you do not want to sacrifice patient care. You may think you need to build more beds in your hospital, but this is not necessarily the case. There are ways you can increase hospital capacity without sacrificing patient care or building more beds. Take a look at a few important tips below, and make sure you use hospital capacity management software to help you with your bed management situation.
Identify the Biggest Problems in the Hospital
First, you should ask your team to identify the biggest problems in the hospital. What are the biggest reasons why you are having a difficult time getting patients out the door? Does the discharge process take too long? Do your patients not have a ride home? Do you think your payer mix is playing a role in your ability to discharge patients? Do you need to add more facilities to the hospital? Make sure you commissioned a comprehensive report to identify the reasons why your hospital bed capacity is too low. It could be something as simple as the population growth in the local area.
Use Objective Data To Help You
Next, you need to use objective data to help you. You should have an efficient data analytics team that can help you identify trends in the hospital. They need to interact with every department in the hospital to collect objective information. Then, use statistical tools to identify important trends that might play a role in your daily operations. What are the bottlenecks in the discharge process? What are the most important metrics you need to follow? If you listen to the data, you can develop appropriate solutions to the problems.
Get Feedback from the Nurses and Doctors
Furthermore, do not let your hospital administrators operate in a vacuum. Instead, you need to collect feedback from your doctors and nurses. You may want to talk to the patient techs, the secretaries at the front door, and even the janitorial teams. See what they think is playing a role in patient turnover. It can be difficult for someone sitting behind a desk all day to figure out why the hospital bed capacity is not where it should be. On the other hand, if you collect feedback from doctors and nurses, you will have an easier time improving the bed situation.
For example, it might be as simple as implementing a step to prioritize patients who are getting discharged. By seeing them first on rounds, it is possible to get the discharge process started sooner. That way, the bed will be freed up by the middle of the day.
Implement Changes with Continuous Evaluation in Mind
Finally, you need to implement changes, but focus on continuous evaluation. Make sure there is a timeline with an audit in the near future. That way, you can figure out what is working, what is not, and what you need to do to improve the process. For example, you may want to set up a board that highlights all the patients who are going home that day. That way, the staff members can prioritize them. You might need to change the position of the board to make it easier to see. When you implement changes, don’t forget about them. Make sure you evaluate them in the future.
Improve Hospital Bed Capacity
These are a few of the most important tips to keep in mind if you are looking for a way to improve your hospital bed capacity. If you can increase patient turnover, you will have an easier time meeting the needs of your patience. Then, you can get patients out of the ER and into the hospital. Furthermore, if you can discharge patients more quickly, you can reduce the chances of someone developing an infection. A hospital-acquired infection will not only harm patient outcomes but also your bottom line. Take steps to improve your hospital capacity and better meet the needs of your patients.