At Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth an Increase in Allied Health Staff = Decreased Length of Stay

At Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth allied health (AH) staffing was 30% lower than other like hospitals and poor performance in LOS was partly attributed to limited access and timeliness of AH inputs, resulting in significant delays.

To address the above staffing issues the following staffing changes occurred:
• Increase of 4.0 physiotherapy, 4.0 allied health assistants, 3.0 occupational therapy, 1.2 dietetics, 0.6 speech pathology, 0.2 clinical psychology. Other disciplines were deemed to be at or near peer benchmarks.
• Increased 5 day and expansion to 7 day service for most disciplines
• Improved participation in ward based teams with improved decision making and communication

As a result of the changes in staffing:
• Mean hospital LOS fell significantly by 1 day for General Medicine and AMU units
• Mean hospital LOS fell significantly by 1.3 days for General Medicine Units
• Occupied bed days fell significantly
• Percentage of weekend discharges increased (not statistically significant)