Too many Avoidable Days Spent in Hospital

Too many Avoidable Days Spent in Hospital

Introduction

Besides the aspect of providing health care, they remain financial institutions that operate with a keen focus on profits. At the same time, a variety of challenges arise in the management that cut into profitability and may threaten the success of such institutions. Among the primary causes of the inflated cost of operations within hospitals remains too many avoidable days in hospitals. Essentially, the aspects represent patients that face care and discharge delays while in care beds and end up staying longer in these facilities more than required. The problem of too many avoidable days in hospitals remains a national issue, with up to 5% of all hospitals dealing with the same (Mitsutake et al., 2020). The impact of the extended-stay impacts not only the hospital’s finances but also the welfare of other patients who need emergency care. Other myriads of problems are also associated with the issue at hand, which contributes to the deteriorating quality of care dedicated to patients. As such, it becomes critical to implement effective interventions that instrumentally reduce the number of avoidable days in hospitals. In an endeavor to understand the concept better, the essay focuses on the established literature review regarding the cause and the impact of the issue while also discussing intervention that can help alleviate the problem.

Literature Review

The problem of avoidable days in hospitals continues to be a critical matter to the healthcare system across the nation. Various reasons are associated with these delays in hospital, including delays in discharge. The healthcare system is increasingly becoming congested and complicated, especially with system breakdowns. As a result, many patients face delays during release and are forced to stay longer while their discharge issues are sorted. Although these delays might not last long due to improvements in technological know-how in system management, they have rippling effects on the hospital and other patients alike. Other reasons for extended days in hospitals include the lack of specialized care outside the hospital. For patients with special needs, getting out of the hospital puts them at higher health risk (Mitsutake et al., 2020). As such, they need to stay at hospitals for close attention from the physicians.

The same is impacted by the demographics whereby some patients are located far away from medical centers, which makes it challenging for them to access medical care at the time of need. In an endeavor to stay in constant connection with medical care, which results in avoidable days spent at the hospital. In this case, the hospital becomes overwhelmed with patients who require hospital services. Another important reason for an extended avoidable stay in the hospital remains the legal involvement of patients. In many cases, some patients have legal issues that require them to stay within reach of the law. Such patients are required to stay with law officers at all times. They, therefore, cannot be released to return to protection centers while they have health complications. As a result, they stay at the hospital until they have fully recovered. These numbers are stretched across states, which increases the number of patients staying in hospitals longer after their discharge dates. Other reasons include delays in the transition process between intensive care and other facilities of care, such as home care, among others (Mitsutake et al., 2020). Usually, the transition process creates a massive delay among patients moving after discharge. Some patients require to move to give space to others while they receive care in other facilities. Additionally, some patients will choose to stay at the hospital even when they are ready for discharge, which contributes to the increasing number of patients in avoidable days at hospitals. These measures require effective interventions to reduce preventable days spent in hospitals instrumentally.

Methods of Intervention

Cost-cutting remains a crucial tool in management levels with a focus on reducing expenditure to maximize on the profits. Patients overstaying at hospitals impact the finances of a hospital in many ways as it delays the administration of new patients. In contrast, hospitals face a more significant challenge to maintain the facilities used by overstaying patients. Some of the proposed interventions include improving the transition of patients to other care facilities (Mitsutake et al., 2020). Many facilities face the challenge of moving patients to other facilities after they have recovered from intensive care. Some of these patients stay for longer at these facilities taking the space of other needy patients. As such, hospitals should work with other facilities to improve the transition of patients once they begin to recover. Transition to other facilities, such as home care and hospice centers. Others can be released to go home and receive outpatient care from family members and visiting nurses. In so doing, the action frees space for other needy patients hence increasing the efficiency of care.

Another effective intervention would include working with physicians to establish information showing their length of stay. With the increase in the number of private practice, many physicians devote more time to these private institutions while cutting the time they spend at their assigned facilities. In so doing, many patients are left without immediate adequate care and have to spend more time in hospitals while they await proper care. Having a precise schedule of the doctors will improve the number of time physicians spends offering care to patients. As such, patients will have timely discharge due to appropriate and sufficient care and thus reduce the number of patients that overstay at hospitals due to delayed care from absentee physicians. Another intervention would be the implementation of the FCP (full capacity protocol). FCP remains one of the internationally recommended interventions for hospitals facing overcrowding in the number of patients (Alishahi Tabriz, Birken, Shea, Fried & Viccellio, 2019). The protocol encourages the movement of patients awaiting discharge to the hallway while their beds are given to other needy patients. At the same time, it becomes critical to increase patient education through increased nurse engagement. Nurses can educate the patients on the importance of getting discharged early and receiving extended care at other facilities such as their homes and others. The patient is at a higher health-risk staying at the hospital longer as they can contact other diseases or fall and injure themselves further. Early discharge also helps reduce the cost of health on the side of the patient.

Conclusion

Concluding, the problem of avoidable stay in hospitals remains a national health care problem. It is caused by preventable measures such as the delayed transition to other care facilities, among many others discussed earlier. Nonetheless, it becomes critical to incorporate the identified interventions to increase early discharges and thus save on costs of operation for both the hospital and patients. Most importantly, however, is the education to patients who require to understand the importance of early discharges. Overall, avoidable days in hospitals not only causes the increased cost of healthcare but also puts the patients on increased health risks.