Improving utilization and patient care. A rural hospital reduces length of stay through policy revisions and education.
In 1990 Saint Vincent Memorial Hospital, Taylorville, IL, intensified efforts to improve resource utilization. A program of daily case review and medical staff education has helped the hospital reduce average length of stay from between 7 and 8 days to between 5 and 6.8 days. Steps taken to achieve this include: Hiring an outside medical adviser to oversee collection and analysis of data related to length of stay and conduct case reviews Appointing a medical review officer and a physician-specific case manager Establishing a Utilization Management Task Force, which has reformed the policy concerning patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus to ensure discharge in a timely manner; implemented a nonacute-day reporting system; and completed a transitional care study to identify the benefits of transferring medically stable Medicare patients to the Skilled Nursing Facility.
Cwiek
M A
MA
Saint Vincent Memorial Hospital, Taylorville, IL.
Davis
H
H
Mortland
C
C
D002410:Catholicism; D006744:Hospital Bed Capacity, 100 to 299; D016519:Hospitals, Religious / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006780:Hospitals, Rural / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007087:Illinois; D007902:Length of Stay; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D014600:Utilization Review / Q000458:organization & administration*