To improve patient flow within acute hospitals, it is essential that patients are discharged in a safe and timely manner. Evidence suggests that, to achieve this goal, patients should be discharged by noon. When questioned, patients express frustration at the time taken for them to be discharged from the ward. Additionally they also report long delays for beds to become available, when they have an elective admission to hospital. Conversely, staff also experience similar difficulties, as these delays frequently result in there being more patients in their ward than there are beds available. They also have to manager patient expectations whilst awaiting admission or discharge. To improve this situation we identified the 'bottlenecks' in the system and used quality improvement methodology to expediate the discharge process. We also sought patient feedback and suggestions on how the patient experience could be improved.
