title: Managing admissions. Bed spreads.
abstract: A decrease in surgical beds left a trust insufficient flexibility to increase an already high throughput without affecting the quality of care. Changes in the management of surgical admissions, including the appointment of an admissions co-ordinator, have improved co-ordination of elective and emergency admissions. Three years later maximum waiting times had fallen from 18 to 10 months. In the first nine months of the new booking system, the number of operations cancelled on the day because of bed nonavailability fell by half, while patients cancelled on the day of admission dropped by 36 per cent.
authors.affiliation: Leicester General Hospital Trust.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vaughan
mesh_terms: D000289:Admitting Department, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003625:Data Collection; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures; D004638:Emergency Treatment; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008330:Management Audit; D010343:Patient Admission; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014850:Waiting Lists