Eliminating Excess Days and Boosting Bed Utilization

BRG professionals collaborated with a 425-bed, not-for-profit community hospital in the Midwest United States to optimize its case management department and improve length of stay (LOS). A major health system in the state had acquired the hospital the prior year. At the time, the hospital’s average LOS was 1.25 days over the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ geometric mean length of stay (GMLOS) benchmark for the population, resulting in annualized excess days and an estimated financial opportunity of $4.5 million.

At the onset of the engagement, the hospital’s Case Management department lacked leadership and a standard work process and had a passive approach to discharge planning. The hospital had the highest number of excess days and largest opportunity for improvement among other community hospitals within the system.

BRG was engaged to conduct a comprehensive performance improvement engagement focused on decreasing LOS and improving patient throughput by:

• designing improvements to care management processes to decrease inpatient LOS and avoidable patient days through a structured, data-driven process
• creating a leading practice department by reducing structural and process impediments to post-acute placement and engaging hospitalists, community physicians, and other healthcare team members
• enhancing daily multidisciplinary communication regarding the medical and discharge plan of care

Read the full case study.