Trends Affecting the Inpatient Setting, Essay Example

This paper analyzes and evaluates the two most salient trends impacting the inpatient setting. Trend A Identification: Severe Acute inpatient psychiatry bed shortage.

Trend A Impact: During the past 40 years, the number of psychiatric inpatient beds has greatly decreased. “Public and private policies have encouraged an extremely short-term, crisis-stabilization model of treatment”(Sharfstein, 2009). The impact of this are increased readmissions, crowded waiting rooms, increased homelessness and incarceration. “These changes have created a public health crisis in America and are the greatest challenges that American psychiatry faces today” (ibid.). A 2008 report by the Treatment Advocacy Centre reports a “US deficit of nearly 100,000 inpatient beds.”

Trend B Identification: Decrease of length of hospital stays is increasing. “The average LOS in 2009 (4.6 days) was almost 20% shorter than in 1993 (5.7 days)”(Inpatient Trends).

Trend B Impact: Ben Sawyer writes that “effective discharge begins at admission”in the hope that the path from admission to discharge and facilitation of post discharge care will run smoothly in the fragmented health care system. Discharging patients as early as possible is a goal that has benefits for the patient and for the institution. If discharges are delayed, “bed control does not have enough bed option to meet incoming demand. Critical care units become challenged with moving patients into step-down areas, which then directly impacts inpatient admissions from the Emergency Department” (ibid.). Delayed discharge also negatively impacts patient satisfaction and safety as well as hospital financial performance. (Sawyer)

References

Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. Journal of continuing professional development. Letter from America: acute inpatient psychiatric bed shortages. Vol. 15, pp. 402 and 403. Steven Sharfstein (2009). Retrieved on February 15, 2013, from http://apt.psychology.org/content/15/6/402.

Health Leaders Factfile. Inpatient trends. Retrieved on February 15, 2013, from http://www.healthleaders.com/content/278521.

Sawyer, B. Patient Placement Systems. Effective discharge begins at admission. Retrieved on February 15, 2013, from http://www.patientplacement.com/media.

Treatment Advocacy Center. Eliminating Barriers to the Treatment of Mental Illness. Severe shortage of psychiatric beds sounds national alarm bells. Retrieved on February 15, 2013, from http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/home.