Opinion: Spreading out elective admissions could save lives, strengthen hospitals, and reduce health spending
Why it matters: A simple scheduling change could save lives, strengthen hospitals, and reduce healthcare spending.
- U.S. healthcare delivery is likened to an unhealthy patient, suffering from systemic problems like unsafe staffing and rising costs due to predictable operational flaws.
- Smoothing elective hospital admissions is a practical solution proposed over 25 years ago, distributing scheduled cases more evenly to avoid artificial surges in demand.
- Hospitals that have implemented smoothing report dramatic improvements, including major reductions in emergency department boarding, safer patient-to-nurse ratios, and lower mortality.
- Financial implications are striking, with hospitals like Cincinnati Children’s reporting over $100 million in additional annual revenue due to more consistent and efficient operating room utilization.
- Clinicians and surgeons are among the biggest beneficiaries, experiencing improved working environments and satisfaction, while patients gain faster access to surgeries and better care.
A compelling opinion piece argues that simply distributing scheduled elective hospital admissions more evenly throughout the week, rather than clustering them, could dramatically improve U.S. healthcare. This operational change, known as smoothing elective admissions, has been shown to reduce medical errors, lower mortality rates, and significantly increase hospital revenue, yet remains largely underutilized.
