Creating Standard Work to Improve Length of Stay

Authors

Jennifer Burris, CentraCare HealthFollow
Patricia Dumonceaux, CentraCare HealthFollow
Lindsay Kephart, CentraCare HealthFollow

Files

Description

Plan:

Improve the geometric mean length of stay (GMLOW) from 1.071 to 1.024 by creating and implementing patient flow and throughput standard work.

Do:

Implement standard work for interdisciplinary team members.

• Create a culture of accountability with consistent use of the expected discharge date (EDD) and patient milestones in Epic, during hand offs, and use of My Care Boards.
• Ensure provider to nurse communication occurs daily using ALWAYS, a standardized tool
• Create and ensure beside nurse-to-nurse hand off occurs using a standardized method known as iALWAYS.
• Create and implement patient education tools.
• Enhance discharge readiness tools to improve real-time communication and gain efficiencies.

Publication Date

5-2025

Publisher

CentraCare

City

St. Cloud

Keywords

Length of stay, Patient discharge, Patient education, Communication

Disciplines

Other Nursing

Comments

2025 Nurses Week Poster

Recommended Citation

Burris, Jennifer; Dumonceaux, Patricia; and Kephart, Lindsay, "Creating Standard Work to Improve Length of Stay" (2025). Nursing Posters. 192.
https://digitalcommons.centracare.com/nursing_posters/192