Reducing the length of stay for patients stranded in the emergency department: A single-center prospective study of 18,631 patients in China

The purpose of this study was to reduce the length of stay (LOS) for patients stranded in the emergency department (ED) of a Grade III A hospital in China, and to improve patient flow and increase bed capacity. We utilized a pre-/postintervention design and employed the Six Sigma methodology, which is based on the DMAIC cycle (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control), to evaluate and improve the existing process. Data from 18,631 patients who were stranded in the ED were collected and analyzed. The median LOS for stranded patients decreased from 17.21 (6.22, 27.36) hours to 13.45 (5.56, 25.85) hours ( P < .05). Similarly, the median LOS for admitted patients decreased from 19.64 (7.77, 27.68) hours to 15.92 (6.19, 26.24) hours ( P < .05). The median LOS for patients with an ED triage Level IV decreased from 16.15 (5.80, 26.62) hours to 12.59 (5.20, 24.97) hours ( P < .05). In addition, the average hospitalization days of hospitalized patients decreased from 0.92 days to 0.82 days ( P < .05). Furthermore, the bed utilization rate increased from 66.79% to 72.29% ( P < .05). The number of bed turnovers in the ED resuscitation room increased from 20.30 to 21.96 ( P < .05). We had effectively met our goal of minimizing ED patient LOS. Six Sigma method can effectively shorten patient LOS by measuring and analyzing the key factors affecting patient LOS, and by implementing measures such as strict implementation of emergency classification and triage system, establishment of multidisciplinary cooperative team, reasonable allocation of human resources, information management of bed resources, and improvement of performance appraisal scheme to improve and control the effectiveness of patient LOS.