Strengthening Hospital Capacity for the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implementation of Electronic Patient Discharge

Increasing hospital capacity to cover the service demands is an important priority during an epidemic or a pandemic. The aim of this study was to increase hospital capacity using the Six Sigma method to improve the patient discharge process.

This was a quantitative study. The Pre- and post-intervention study was conducted in a big hospital designated for COVID-19 patients. The patient discharge process was evaluated and improved based on seven sub-processes and following the Six Sigma model, including defining the problem, measuring time in each of the discharge stations, analysis times and process, improvement process, and control.

Implementation of the electronic patient discharge led to a 51.9% decrease in discharge time from 7.3  h during the pre-intervention period to 3.8 h post-intervention (P< 0.0001). According to the Sigma level, the yield and defects per million opportunities of the discharge process also improved to 55%.

Increasing hospital capacity by improving the discharge time is a quick action to cover the demand created during pandemics. Also, about 32 beds can be obtained by applying the Six Sigma model to improve the discharge process in a short time and at a very low cost.