EVALUATION OF HOSPITAL BED UTILIZATION PATTERN AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

A hospital bed is both a scarce and expensive commodity in healthcare.1 The availability of beds is perhaps the single most important factor in determination of the hospital utilization in a country.2 Efficient bed management is most important for better utilization of hospitals. Objective: To study the pattern of hospital bed utilization from July to September 2018 in General Medicine Department of Gandhi Hospital. Methodology Record based observational study done with the retrospective data of inpatients of General Medicine wards collected from the Medical Records Section of Gandhi hospital. Results and Observations: The study shows that the institute is catering to the services of more number of patients than the beds sanctioned in the medical wards. In the study, as the BOR is more than 100% in the months of August and September, it clearly indicates that there is over utilization of beds. The Average Length of Stay (ALOS) in the study is found to be 4.30, 4.35, 4.30 days respectively for the months (July – September).The BTI in the study was found to be 0.04, -0.14, -0.14 days respectively. Hence negative BTI clearly shows us the picture that there is scarcity of beds to cater the needs of patients getting admitted. BTR in the study was 7.08, 7.36, 7.17respectively. Conclusion: By studying the different indices (BOR, ALOS, BTR, BTI), it was found that hospital utilization is more than the optimum. Being a government tertiary care hospital more number of patients seek health care and also large proportion of cases are being referred from neighbouring places as well as from private and corporate hospitals within the city.