1. Hospitalist intervention for appropriate use of telemetry reduces length of stay and cost.
- Author
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Svec D, Ahuja N, Evans KH, Hom J, Garg T, Loftus P, and Shieh L
- Subjects
- Academic Medical Centers, California, Humans, Motivation, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Teaching, Telemetry economics, Hospital Costs, Hospitalists education, Length of Stay economics, Telemetry statistics & numerical data
- Abstract
Background: Telemetry monitoring is a widely used, labor-intensive, and often-limited resource. Little is known of the effectiveness of methods to guide appropriate use., Objective: Our intervention for appropriate use included: (1) a hospitalist-led, daily review of bed utilization, (2) hospitalist-driven education module for trainees, (3) quarterly feedback of telemetry usage, and (4) financial incentives., Design/methods: Hospitalists were encouraged to discuss daily telemetry utilization on rounds. A module on appropriate telemetry usage was taught by hospitalists during the intervention period (January 2013-August 2013) on medicine wards. Pre- and post-evaluations measured changes regarding telemetry use. We compared hospital bed-use data between the baseline period (January 2012-December 2012), intervention period, and extension period (September 2014-March 2015). During the intervention period, hospital bed-use data were sent to the hospitalist group quarterly. Financial incentives were provided after a decrease in hospitalist telemetry utilization., Setting: Stanford Hospital, a 444-bed, academic medical center in Stanford, California., Results: Hospitalists saw reductions for both length of stay (LOS) (2.75 vs 2.13 days, P = 0.005) and total cost (22.5% reduction) for telemetry bed utilization in the intervention period. Nonhospitalists telemetry bed utilization remained unchanged. We saw significant improvements in trainee knowledge of the most cost-saving action (P = 0.002) and the least cost-saving action (P = 0.003) in the pre- and post-evaluation analyses. Results were sustained in the hospitalist group, with telemetry LOS of 1.93 days in the extension period., Conclusions: A multipronged, hospitalist-driven intervention to improve appropriate use of telemetry reduces LOS and cost, and increases knowledge of cost-saving actions among trainees., (© 2015 Society of Hospital Medicine.)
- Published
- 2015
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