%0 Journal Article %A Aftab Ahmad %A Tejpal S Purewal %A Dushyant Sharma %A Philip J Weston %T The impact of twice-daily consultant ward rounds on the length of stay in two general medical wards %D 2011 %R 10.7861/clinmedicine.11-6-524 %J Clinical Medicine %P 524-528 %V 11 %N 6 %X Excess average length of stay (ALoS) not only results in an increased cost to hospitals but also increases the risk of hospital-acquired infection and thromboembolism. Various factors suggested to affect ALoS have yet to demonstrate a significant impact in clinical practice. Increased consultant input has been identified as an important factor influencing ALoS. As a result, a radical and innovative consultant job plan, replacing twice-weekly with twice-daily ward rounds (WRs) on a university teaching hospital's two medical wards has been designed. The number of discharges (NoDs) significantly increased (p< 0.01), ALoS reduced (p< 0.01), whereas, readmission rate and mortality remained unchanged (p=NS) over 12 months following twice-daily WRs compared to two other wards with twice-weekly WRs. This innovative model resulted in almost doubling the NoDs and halving the ALoS. This study suggests that ALoS can be reduced and sustained with a cultural and behavioural shift in consultant working patterns, without affecting readmission rate or inpatient mortality. %U https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/11/6/524.full.pdf