The First Line of Defense in the Discharge Process
Staffing shortages and increased patient volumes are just a couple of reasons why patient placement personnel and nursing leadership are often faced with a common issue; finding an open bed for their patient.
While team members search for a bed, the patient is likely stuck waiting in the Emergency Department (ED) or another waiting area, not receiving the care that they need. Unfortunately, long wait times have been proven to lead to poor patient outcomes and increased ED boarding times. But the reality is, while on paper a health system may look as though it is at full capacity, there might be beds available.
Patient placement teams may see that all their staffed beds are listed as ‘Occupied’, but the reality is that the beds are sitting empty, and they simply haven’t been switched to a ‘Dirty’ or ‘Ready to Clean’ status because the nurse hasn’t had enough time to complete the discharge process in the EHR, even though the last patient left minutes, or even hours, ago.
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