ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the demand coming from the emergency department (ED) into the inpatient side, as well as the demand coming from surgical services. It suggests that the concepts and "how to's" of eyeball disposition, scheduling admissions, and predictive analytics are critical for moving patients quickly to their appropriate care areas. The chapter teaches that surgical patients are admitted largely based on the output of the surgical schedule. The use of the schedule as a predictive tool to help inpatient units predict their workloads and workflows is critical to the availability of inpatient capacity on surgical units, the smoothness of inpatient operations and surgical admission processes. However, just as there is variability in the demand patterns from major sources of inpatient demand, so too is there variability in the capacity that is made available. Much of the blocking and tackling of inpatient capacity is about using data and planning for the inevitable.
