Capacity constraints continue to impact inpatient units, with over 90% citing staffing as the biggest pain point and nearly 84% citing discharge process breakdown as the biggest bottleneck
SANTA CLARA, CA – August 21, 2024 – LeanTaaS, Inc., the market leader in providing AI-powered and cloud-based capacity management, staffing, and patient flow software and services for health systems, today announced the release of its The State of Inpatient Capacity Optimization Report, capturing the firsthand experiences and insights of health system leaders representing 22 U.S. academic, community, and religious health systems across 29 states, with a footprint of nearly 450 hospitals with over 77,500 beds. Nearly 80% of the respondents hold leadership titles. The survey aims to unlock insights into their challenges and top-of-mind priorities around optimizing inpatient capacity.
Key findings from the survey include:
- Over 90% of respondents cited staffing as a severe or moderate pain point.
- Nearly 84% said discharge process breakdown is one of the biggest bottlenecks impacting patient throughput in their hospital, and over 75% said communication across discharge stakeholders was “Fragmented” or “Inconsistent”.
- More than 64% say the most common challenges for making the case for change in their organizations include staff resistance to change, limited resources for implementation, and alignment with organizational goals.
- Over 50% of the respondents operate an active command center and have witnessed enhancements in capacity management. However, most leaders acknowledge that there is still room for further optimization and enhancement of their command center operations.
- Nearly 50% said staffing causes “major bottlenecks” in bed availability and patient throughput and 43% said staffing causes “moderate delays”.
The report outlines how health system leaders are addressing these challenges with people, process, and AI-powered technology. Solutions include adopting a command center strategy to transform operations and create access, improving care team coordination and discharge processes, implementing flexible staffing models to support patient care needs, and aligning strategic goals and governance to drive change. By highlighting real-world solutions employed by leading health systems, the report provides a roadmap for enhancing inpatient flow and capacity utilization amid today’s complex landscape.
The need for innovative capacity management practices is fueled by persistent healthcare labor shortages in hospitals and health systems across the country. According to the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, it is predicted that by 2036 the industry will have shortages of more than 68,000 primary care physicians, 62,400 psychologists, 42,100 psychiatrists, 6,600 obstetrician-gynecologists, and 33,100 family medicine physicians, in addition to deficits in other specialties. AI-powered solutions provide tangible and sustainable impact for this long-term problem.
“Inpatient capacity is one of the biggest challenges for hospitals due to the delicate dynamics of managing staff and fluctuating patient demand,” said Jason Harber, Vice President of Client Services, Inpatient Flow. “Historical approaches to managing inpatient capacity such as manual workflows have reached their limits and are not designed for long-term success. Hospitals and health systems across the country that are embracing predictive data, AI, and change management have seen demonstrable improvements and are creating the inpatient unit of the future that benefits both staff and patients.”
iQueue for Inpatient Flow empowers hospital leaders and frontline teams to coordinate bed availability, patient throughput, and staffing needs in unison to ensure capacity is available, priorities are aligned across care teams, and staff are allocated to the areas where they are needed most. With iQueue, healthcare organizations can realize transformative improvements across key operational metrics, including 10% more discharges per day, 10% decrease in opportunity days, 30% reduction in transfer declines, and 3% increase in patient admissions. Earlier this year, LeanTaaS’ iQueue for Inpatient Flow solution received a remarkable 95 (out of 100) score from KLAS for overall satisfaction. These results further emphasize LeanTaaS’ category leadership in capacity management optimization, as the average score for KLAS-rated software products was 79.6 for 2024.
About LeanTaaS
LeanTaaS transforms hospital and infusion center operations through software and services that combine lean principles, predictive and prescriptive analytics, and machine learning. The company’s software and services are being used by 190+ health systems in 1,200+ hospitals and centers across the nation, which rely on the iQueue cloud-based solutions to increase patient access, decrease wait times, reduce healthcare delivery costs, and improve revenue. LeanTaaS is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA with an office in Charlotte, NC. For more information about LeanTaaS, please visithttps://leantaas.com/, and connect onLinkedIn and X.
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Kate Soden