Analysis, Modeling and Improvement of Patient Discharge Process

While demand for health care services is consistently on the rise, Canadian hospitals are witnessing extensive patient flow problems. The unavailability of beds is causing admission departments to cancel elective surgeries and place emergency admissions in less appropriate units. The risks of reduced quality of care, reduced patient satisfaction and lost revenues are foreseeable. Many patients are staying past their prescribed acute care by extended periods (called Alternative Level of Care or ALC days) that are hard to predict. Thus, a considerable percentage of available beds is wasted. This book unravels key factors extending unnecessary patient stays and uses them as early predictors for discharge planning needs. The analysis, mapping, and performance measurement of several processes in the patient episode should help shed some light on activities that will enhance discharge planning and patient flow. The tools, concepts and results presented should be useful to professionals in Social Work and Health Care fields. They should also denote the exciting role process improvement and industrial engineering concepts can play in improving health care processes.