Importance of Bed Management
Because hospital beds are economically scarce resources, there is naturally pressure to ensure high occupancy rates and therefore a minimal buffer of empty beds. However, because the volume of emergency admissions is unpredictable, hospitals with average occupancy levels above 85 per cent "can expect to have regular bed shortages and periodic bed crises."
Shortage of beds can result in cancellations of admissions for planned (elective) surgery, admission to inappropriate wards (medical vs surgical, male vs female etc.), delay admitting emergency patients, and transfers of existing inpatients between wards, which "may add a day to a patients length of stay".
These can be politically sensitive issues in publicly funded heathcare systems. In the UK there has been concern over inaccurate and sometimes fraudulently manipulated waiting list statistics, and claims that "the current A&E target is simply not achievable without the employment of dubious management tactics."
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