Key project measures
| Measurement group | Measure | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Process measures | Physician process measure: % of admitted patients with medically-ready discharge orders | A measure of physician process compliance for patients admitted to the study units with one of the identified 11 diagnoses. Calculated as the number of patients with medically-ready discharge orders written divided by the number of eligible patients |
| Nurse process measure: % of patients with medically-ready criteria time-stamp placed in the electronic medical record (EMR) | A measure of nurse process compliance designed to compute the percentage of patients with medically-ready discharge criteria who have EMR time-stamp placed. Calculated as the number of patients with EMR time-stamp (denoting when medically-ready criteria were met) divided by the number of eligible patients with the criteria written | |
| Primary outcome measure | % of patients discharged within 2 h of being medically-ready | A measure of the successful discharge of patients within 2 h of meeting the medically-ready discharge criteria. Calculated as the number of patients discharged within 2 h of meeting discharge criteria divided by of the number eligible patients. If patients met the criteria between 20:00 and 07:00, they were expected to leave by 09:00 |
| Secondary outcome measure | Length of stay | A measure of the duration, in days of inpatient stay, for eligible patients. Evaluated by diagnosis as both the median and mean |
| Average daily census | A measure of the average bed occupancy for all units in the study. Calculated as the total occupied beds during a month at 08:00 and divided by the days of the month. Evaluated and compared with the average for the 10 months prior to the study and the 10 months at the end of the study | |
| Balancing measures | Readmission rate | A measure of the percentage of discharged patients who return to the hospital and are readmitted with the same diagnosis-specific grouping within 30 days of discharge. Evaluated by diagnosis group and compared with patients from a similar time period the year prior. Includes patients admitted under inpatient status and observation status |
| Patient satisfaction | A measure of patient satisfaction for Hospital Medicine units measured using the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center satisfaction survey question: ‘On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst possible hospital and 10 being the best possible hospital, what number would you rate this hospital?’ |