This briefing aims to provide commissioners and providers with information on trends and activity to help them decide where to focus attention.
Background
- The NHS faces the tightest financial settlement in its history. It is charged to find £20 billion in productivity improvements by 2015
- Bed use for elective admissions accounts for 55% of admissions however they occupy less that 30% of overall bed days
- Elective admissions have fallen significantly in recent years
Citing research since 2003, this briefing informs the key question that emerges: Could reducing the use of hospital beds for emergency admissions help hospitals to deliver the changes, without making significant cuts to services or reducing quality?
The paper examines:
- why we need to understand more about bed use for emergency admissions
- what progress has been made in reducing bed use for emergency admissions
- how reducing bed use for emergency admissions can lead to improved quality of care and patient experience
Summary
- Using hospital beds more efficiently could save the NHS at least £1 billion a year
- More than 70% of hospital bed days are occupied by emergency admissions.
- Reducing bed use for emergency admissions offers the most potential for savings
- 10% of patients admitted as emergencies stay for more than 2 weeks
- 80% of emergency admissions who stay longer than 2 weeks are aged 65+
It seems that focusing on reducing the length of stay for older people has the most potential for reducing hospital bed use.
Hospital care needs to change to reduce length of stay: mobilising patients early and keeping them mobile (Mundy et al 2003) and improving diagnosis and treatment of patients with delirium and dementia (Lundstrom et al 2005). Acute services, social services, community and domiciliary care and primary care need to work together to ensure timely discharge.
Reference
Poteliakhoff E, Thompson J. Data briefing: emergency bed use: what the numbers tell us [PDF] King’s Fund, 22 Dec 2011
Mundy L.M. et al. Early mobilization of patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia. Chest, 2003, vol 124, pp 883–9
Lundstrom, M. et al. ‘A multifactorial intervention program reduces the duration of delirium, length of hospitalization, and mortality in delirious patients’. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2005, vol 53, no 4, pp 622–8. [abstract]
Emergency bed use, a data briefing from the Kings Fund. What do the numbers say?
This briefing aims to provide commissioners and providers with information on trends and activity to help them decide where to focus attention
Background
- The NHS faces the tightest financial settlement in its history. It is charged to find £20 billion in productivity improvements by 2015.
- Bed use for elective admissions accounts for 55% of admissions. However they occupy less that 30% of overall bed days.
- Elective admissions have fallen significantly in recent years
Citing research since 2003, this briefing informs the key question that emerges: Could reducing the use of hospital beds for emergency admissions help hospitals to deliver the changes, without making significant cuts to services or reducing quality?
The paper examines:
- why we need to understand more about bed use for emergency admissions
- what progress has been made in reducing bed use for emergency admissions
- how reducing bed use for emergency admissions can lead to improved quality of care and patient experience
Summary
- Using hospital beds more efficiently could save the NHS at least £1 billion a year
- More than 70% of hospital bed days are occupied by emergency admissions.
- Reducing bed use for emergency admissions offers the most potential for savings
- 10% of patients admitted as emergencies stay for more than 2 weeks
- 80% of emergency admissions who stay for more than 2 weeks are patients aged 65+
It seems that focusing on reducing the length of stay for older people has the most potential for reducing hospital bed use
Reference
Poteliakhoff E, Thompson J. Data briefing: emergency bed use: what the numbers tell us [PDF] King’s Fund, 22 December 2011
