A Prospective Audit of Inappropriately Occupied Hospital Beds in Patients with Newly Acquired Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

Aim To quantify the inappropriate bed occupancy amongst patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) awaiting transfer of care from the acute to community. Methods A prospective audit was carried out, of all newly acquired cases of TSCI in 2017, who progressed through acute care and specialist...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Irish medical journal 2019-08, Vol.112 (7), p.971-971
Main Authors: Smith, E, Synnott, K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bed Occupancy - statistics & numerical data
Hospital Bed Capacity
Humans
Ireland
Patient Transfer - statistics & numerical data
Prospective Studies
Quality of Health Care
Spinal Cord Injuries - rehabilitation
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Aim To quantify the inappropriate bed occupancy amongst patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) awaiting transfer of care from the acute to community. Methods A prospective audit was carried out, of all newly acquired cases of TSCI in 2017, who progressed through acute care and specialist rehabilitation. Results Forty-four patients who were audited spent a total of 3915 days occupying a hospital bed, inappropriate for their phase of care, 78 awaiting admission to specialist acute care, 3126 awaiting admission to rehabilitation and 711 awaiting discharge from rehabilitation. Conclusion Valuable health-care resources are being wasted because TSCI patients cannot move seamlessly from one phase of care to the next. This impacts negatively on the quality of care being delivered to this patient cohort.
ISSN:0332-3102