Healthcare Financial News

Coordinating the discharge of hospital patients before 12:00 noon can significantly improve the flow of patients in emergency departments (EDs) by making more inpatient beds available to emergency patients, according to a report released by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The report recommends other high-impact, low-cost solutions to address the problem of holding or “boarding” patients who have been admitted to the hospital in the ED, a primary cause of overcrowding.

The report, Emergency Department Crowding: High-Impact Solutions, includes other recommendations, including moving admitted patients out of the ED to inpatient areas. With each unit taking a small number of patients, the burden of boarding is more evenly spread throughout the hospital. Also, coordinating the scheduling of elective patients and surgical cases is another approach; studies demonstrate that the uneven influx of elective patients (heaviest early in the week) is a prime contributor to exceeding capacity, said the researchers. Download the report.

Research published in the June 2008 issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety shows significant variation in the quality of care provided by health systems across the country. In the findings, not-for-profit health systems had, on average, quality scores 7 percent higher than for-profit health systems, and more centralized health systems had 5 percent higher overall quality scores than decentralized health systems.

Researchers with the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement analyzed data from more than 70 health systems, representing more than 1,500 hospitals in the United States. Variation on quality scores in 19 publicly reported quality measures for health systems was substantial, ranging from 70 percent to 94 percent overall. Additionally, for-profit health systems and systems that are more decentralized were appreciably lower in quality scores for pneumonia, heart failure, heart attack, and surgical care. Read the abstract. Access the list of rankings.