Principal Researcher/Investigator(s): Marisha Burden, MD
Funding Agency: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Hospitals around the country face bottlenecks and capacity issues. When hospitals are successful at managing high capacity this allows for increased access for patients who need this higher level of care and expertise. Unfortunately, hospital discharges frequently occur in the afternoon or evening hours and can adversely affect patient flow throughout the hospital which, in turn, can result in delays in care, medication errors, increased mortality, longer lengths of stay, higher costs, lower patient satisfaction, and decreased access to care at these facilities. While some of the delays in discharges result, appropriately, from the caring of other patients and conducting the necessary tasks and assessments for acutely ill patients, our previous work also identified that providers may be able to prioritize their work in a different way in order to facilitate this throughput.