A discharge panel at Denver Health, focused on complex patients, may have influenced decline in length-of-stay.

Acute care hospitals struggle to manage complex patients who no longer require acute care services but who present medical and psychosocial challenges that make safe discharge to a lower level of care difficult. These challenges can be particularly acute at safety-net hospitals that cater predominantly to the poor and uninsured. For a person with a serious illness, such as a spinal cord injury, lack of insurance for long-term care services may add many weeks of medically unnecessary hospital days and result in higher costs.

Le Bistro serves up cultural change.

Bristol Hospital, a 134-bed community health care system in Connecticut, has consistently been nationally ranked in the top tier of hospitals for its patient satisfaction scores. A key to this long-term distinction has been its commitment to a culture built around patient satisfaction and service excellence. Empowerment, vigilance, recognition, and celebration are the cultural cornerstones.