Inpatient Length of Stay Reduction - Gold Award for Team Excellence
Thursday, February 2, 2023
The URMC inpatient Neurology and Imaging Science departments were recently honored with the Gold Award for Team Excellence by the Greater Rochester Quality Council for a project which saved over 150 admissions from the ED and reduced inpatient length of stay. The GRQC, an affiliate of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, recognizes teams from a wide range of industries that are committed to quality and performance excellence.
This collaboration implemented efforts to reduce a patient’s hospital stay when awaiting an MRI prior to discharge and to prevent unnecessary admissions from the ED beginning in February of 2021 Prior to the launch, data showed that patients who were medically ready for discharge waited an average of two to three additional days in the hospital for an MRI, and many patients were admitted for the sole purpose of an expedited MRI. For improved resource utilization, efforts were made to convert inpatient MRI appointments for patients who could safely be discharged home to urgent outpatient MRI visits.
The project team evaluated inpatient populations that could safely be discharged with their MRI study converted to an outpatient order and developed an alternative workflow whereby the ordering provider could indicate to the MRI team when a patient was considered appropriate for discharge and place a STAT outpatient order for expedited imaging at one of our Ambulatory sites. These efforts have resulted in 532 fewer bed days required for the targeted patient population. This further resulted in our ability to care for 93 incrementally more patients. Tracking shows this project has had a positive financial impact to date of over $465,000. The project is ongoing, and remains extremely successful.