TY - JOUR T1 - The impact of twice-daily consultant ward rounds on the length of stay in two general medical wards JF - Clinical Medicine JO - Clin Med SP - 524 LP - 528 DO - 10.7861/clinmedicine.11-6-524 VL - 11 IS - 6 AU - Aftab Ahmad AU - Tejpal S Purewal AU - Dushyant Sharma AU - Philip J Weston Y1 - 2011/12/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/11/6/524.abstract N2 - 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. ER -