Smoothing elective surgical admissions is critical to improving quality of care, staffing, and revenue.

There is a competition for hospital resources (especially for beds) between different patient demands, particularly between elective surgical patients and unscheduled surgical patients.

Unscheduled patient admissions for surgery (mostly from the emergency department) are beyond the hospital's control. However, the case volume of elective (mostly scheduled) surgical patients usually is more variable than the case volume of emergency department (ED) admissions. This counterintuitive finding reflects both the problem and the opportunity.

Over the past several months, hospitals in IHI's Flow Collaborative have implemented several changes in surgical scheduling. One particular change — smoothing the demand for elective surgery — has yielded results that are so significant that we want to bring them to your immediate attention.

Posted here is an executive summary of the impressive work of St. John's Hospital (Springfield, Missouri, USA) and Boston Medical Center (Boston, Massachusetts, USA).  Also posted is an audio recording of a call hosted by IHI in which executive leaders of these organizations discuss their results and answer questions from participants in IHI's Improving Flow Through Acute Care Settings Innovation Community.

(You will need to have Real Player on your computer to listen to this recording.)