Making the surgical beds go around

A planned surgical admission is a major event for a patient and, when cancelled, not only causes great distress to the patient and relatives but is also a frustrating waste of resources if a fully staffed operating theatre lies idle. At Westmead Hospital, a bed management team was established with the appointment of a Clinical Nurse Consultant as Bed Manager to co-ordinate admissions in conjunction with all staff involved in the processing of surgical patients. Despite a reduced number of available surgical beds, throughput was maintained with a significantly reduced number of cancelled booked cases, which decreased to zero and have remained so since the end of 1995. It has been found that it is possible to achieve a situation where all booked surgical patients can be admitted as planned while still providing for emergency patients. This requires a co-ordinated approach with an emphasis on teamwork led by a dedicated Bed Manager working with medical and nursing staff on surgical wards together with the bookings office, pre-admission clinic, operating theatre and anaesthetics department.