Establishing criteria for discharge from the hospital for the most commonly diagnosed conditions can help hospitals reduce length of stay among children, according to a study published in Hospital Pediatrics.
Researchers examined discharge times and lengths of stay at a U.S. hospital where a multidisciplinary team created discharge criteria for 10 of the most commonly diagnosed conditions.
Within a year of the discharge criteria being created, lengths of stay for hospitalized kids with the 10 most common conditions dropped from nearly three days to about a day and a half.
Also, the percentage of kids completing the discharge process within three hours improved significantly — from 44 percent of kids before the criteria was established, to 87 percent of kids after.
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