Abstract

Average length of stay (ALOS) is an important outcome measure of inpatient healthcare quality, which has been suggested to have profound effects on patient outcomes. An increased ALOS, which can be influenced by many clinical and nonclinical factors, has been shown to have negative effects on quality of care, incidence of hospital-acquired infections, adverse medication effects, hospital profit, and patient financial burden. In attempts to decrease the ALOS and improve the quality and efficacy of care delivery, this study was done to determine the impact of daily interdisciplinary team meetings on ALOS during the Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The study focus was on patients admitted to a tertiary care community hospital during the time period of January 2020 to September 2021. Statistical process control (SPC) charts were used to evaluate changes in ALOS throughout this time, and end-outcomes of ALOS were compared to the ALOS prior to implementation of daily interdisciplinary team meetings. From January to December 2020, the ALOS in the hospital was 4.8 days. After the integration of daily interdisciplinary team meetings in April 2021, the ALOS showed an initial decrease to 4.4 days. This finding suggests that interdisciplinary team meetings can have a statistically significant impact on ALOS, as determined by the control chart rules for SPC, and may lead to improvements in the quality and safety of patient care and more effective management of hospital resources.