Case management insider. Managing length of stay using patient flow--Part 3

As lengths of stay shorten across the country, opportunities to continue to reduce length of stay become more difficult to identify. Monitoring care progression processes is the foundation of patient flow and requires daily point of care monitoring as well as data analysis retrospectively. Each case management department should create a patient flow infrastructure that includes daily monitoring and correction as well as a database that allows for collection of information that can be used later for analysis and performance improvement. In next month's issue of Case Management Insider, we will review a couple of different patient flow report cards that can be used to monitor delays and bottlenecks across the continuum of care.