Acute Care Hospitals Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Acute Care Hospitals - Assignment Example There two categories of hospital patients: the inpatient and the outpatient. The inpatients can be admitted for a single day or for a couple of days. Acute health services encompass all prevention, curative, and rehabilitation efforts. The primary objective is to improve the patient health within the shortest time possible. Emergency departments of several acute care hospitals have a limited bed capacity. Patients with acute health condition require urgent short-term treatment. Any delays or in the emergency department may worsen their health condition. Patients with acute condition require the lengthy stay in the emergency department. The goal of acute care hospitals is to discharge the patient once they are deemed stable and healthy. However, acute health care is not limited to the emergency department rather it also covers the intensive care department. The federal government has initiated programs that will increase the bed capacity in an emergency department of various public ho spitals. The government strives to expand the existing hospital capacity or construct additional acute care hospitals, especially in the rural areas. Concerns have arisen regarding the increased patient frequency in the emergency department. Most of the hospitals have resulted in diverting some of the patients to other hospitals due to the widespread capacity problem. A study carried out in Chicago revealed that public hospitals inpatient is expected to rise by 4% in the current year, this implies the need to expand the bed capacity by 40%. There is a broad disparity in the variation of the pattern of patient discharge and that of patient admission. The underlying reason for the disparity is the way the hospital processes are managed. The processes include inpatients tests, pharmacy and ward transfer.