Five-Year Trend Analysis of Capacity Utilization Measures in a Teaching Hospital 2008-2012

Evaluation of hospitals performance determines what hospitals really do, and define deficiencies with regard to the original standards and identify opportunities for improvement.. We investigated trends in the performance of a hospital with capacity utilization measures used in Pabon Lasso (PL) model.. In this cross-sectional descriptive study from March 2008 to March 2012, we retrieved all performance data from the Hospital Information System of Shahid Faghihi Hospital, a public teaching hospital in Shiraz, Iran. Measurements included changes in the trend of three indices: bed turnover, bed occupancy rate, and average length of stay.. The trends in hospital performance showed a decrease in mean (median) hospital stay from 6.77 (± 3.11) days in 2008 to 4.25 (± 2.70) days in 2012. In 2008, bed turnover was 50.03 times/year, bed occupancy rate was 92.9% and turnover interval was 0.51 days. In 2012, these indices were 60.8 times/year, 70.9%, and 1.74 days, respectively. These measures in PL model showed that Shahid Faghihi Hospital was located in zone 4 during 2008-2009, zone 1 during 2010-2011, and zone 3 during 2012, indicating an acceptable degree of efficiency and an optimal level of performance.. This hospital showed relative improvements in all capacity utilization measures in 2012. Future efforts should examine new interventions to further increase the hospital’s performance capacity..