Bed management team with Kanban web-based application.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Information Technology in Healthcare
• Process Optimization

Background:

• Inefficient bed management prolongs hospital stays and increases patient dissatisfaction.
• Traditional bed management systems often lack real-time visibility and efficient workflow tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based application utilizing Kanban methodology for bed management.
• To assess the impact of this intervention on reducing patient hospitalization duration and improving bed availability.

Main Methods:

• A before-and-after study was conducted at a 300-bed hospital, including a 60-bed intensive care unit (ICU).
• The intervention involved a web-based bed management application with color-coded patient status, automatic signaling, and discharge forecasting.
• Key outcome measures included length of hospital stay and customer complaints regarding bed availability.

Main Results:

• Overall hospital stay time decreased from 5.6 to 4.9 days (P = 0.001).
• ICU stay time saw a significant reduction from 6.0 to 2.0 days (P = 0.001).
• Complaints related to bed availability dropped from 27% to 0%.

Conclusions:

• A web-based tool employing Kanban methodology is effective for bed management.
• This approach successfully reduces patient hospitalization time and enhances bed availability, leading to improved patient care and operational efficiency.