TITLE:
Evaluating Inpatient Hospital Bed Need at the Community Level
AUTHORS:
Ronald Lagoe, Shelly Littau
KEYWORDS:
Hospitals, Hospital Bed Need, Health Planning
JOURNAL NAME:
Case Reports in Clinical Medicine,
Vol.12 No.5,
May
23,
2023
ABSTRACT: An important component of health care planning at the community level is the identification of inpatient hospital bed capacity. In the United States, hospitals are major providers of patient care and the largest sources of health care expenses. This study evaluated inpatient hospital capacity for major services including adult medicine, adult surgery, and obstetrics. It was based on local and regional demographics, admissions per capita, inmigration, and inpatient lengths of stay. The study also involved the use of the methodology to estimate bed need based on a reduction in hospital admissions and discharges of 15 percent. This level has been the experience of area hospitals between 2019 and 2022. The study also included the use of the bed need methodology to estimate the hospital utilization based on a decline in inpatient lengths of stay. It resulted in a decline in hospital occupancy in the hospital service area from 1213.1 to 1012.6 patients based on 80 percent occupancy and the best practice hospital stays in the region.