ABSTRACT
Introduction A signi“cant issue that hospital administrators face is how to reduce the length of stay (LOS) for clinical services without sacri“cing the quality of care given. e LOS statistic is de“ned as total patient days divided by inpatient (IP) cases, and it is a signi“cant driver of hospital net income. In fact, many “nancial personnel consider it the most signi“cant measure of the eŸectiveness and e«ciency of a hospital. e overall theory is that the less time a patient remains under hospital care, the fewer the expenses that are consumed. is belief is driven by the premise that a majority of IPs are insured through Medicare, which pays a “xed rate regardless of the patient’s LOS. e eŸort to reduce hospital patient days is a delicate process because the decline in the patient’s stay must be carefully balanced against the quality of care that is administered. Excessive waste can be minimized through the proper execution of functional protocols; however, a patient’s discharge status should never be in§uenced by “nancial considerations. Each hospital payer should be analyzed separately to determine the viability of reducing the LOS.
