Impact of the Implementation of a Short Stay Observation Unit Associated With Admitter-Rounder Model Onto Other Internal Medicine Units in a French University Hospital

Introduction

Few data on the impact of specific interventions against Emergency Rooms ‘or Hospitals overcrowding are available in France.

Methods

In the present report, we retrospectively investigated the impact of the implementation of a short-stay observation unit associated with the admitter-rounder model, especially onto the other in-patient internal medicine units in a French University Hospital.

Results

During the first 100 days, 242 patients were admitted into the short-stay observation unit. The median length of stay (LOS) was 5 days, but it was lower during the first and third parts with the admitter-rounder model than during the second part without: 4 versus 6 days (p = 0.007).

Internal medicine bed-spaced patients accounted for 19.5% of the bed-spaced patients during the study period versus 28.1% during the same period the previous year (p = 0.04). The median LOS increased significantly in two units of internal medicine: 10 versus 8 days (p = 0.005) and 10 versus 8 days (p = 0.01) during the study period versus the same period the previous year, respectively.

Discussion

The reduced number of Internal Medicine bed-spaced patients, the reduced LOS of patients in short-stay observation unit when associated with the admitter-rounder model and the increase of LOS among some of the in-patient internal medicine units observed in this study should be evaluated elsewhere.