24 Employing the model for improvement to decrease inpatient length of stay in a community hospital

<h3>Background</h3> The COVID 19 Pandemic resulted in increased Hospital Length of Stay (LOS) at many hospitals including ours. As COVID waned, our LOS did not return to baseline. This negatively impacted patients and operations. <h3>Objectives</h3> To decrease our LOS by 10%. <h3>Methods</h3> Use the Model for Improvement to implement selected tactics, share progress with care teams and leaders, and assess impact on LOS. A multidisciplinary team identified three tactics: 1. Initiate interprofessional bedside rounding 2. Early mobilization of eligible patients 3. Enhancements to Interdisciplinary Care Rounds. Each tactic had a workgroup to design, implement, develop metrics and monitor performance. Progress was reported out across organization. <h3>Results</h3> Achieved &gt; 80% reliability for 2 of 3 tactics. For 6 months post implementation saw 13.7% reduction in LOS compared to the same 6 months in prior year: from 6.3 days to 5.5 days. (p&lt; 0.01). That improvement has sustained through 12 months post-implementation on risk adjusted data. <h3>Conclusion and Implications</h3> Application of the Model for Improvement allows tactics designed to reduce Length of Stay to be successfully implemented in a community hospital setting.