Available bed—same-day admitted care, average number of beds N[NNN.N]

Guide for use:

The number of beds, chairs or trolleys available to provide accommodation for same-day patients is recorded. Same-day patients are accommodated in the following ways:

1. Patients occupy a single bed or chair in a single location throughout their stay, e.g. dialysis or chemotherapy chair. In this situation the bed or chair is counted as a bed available for same-day patients.
2. Patients occupy a trolley which is moved to different locations throughout their stay – e.g. endoscopy suite, where patients move from the same-day ward to a procedure room, onto a recovery room and back to the same-day ward. In this situation the trolley is counted as a bed available for same-day patients.
3. Same-day patients are accommodated in a general ward after being transferred from another area of the hospital (e.g. Emergency, another ward, etc). In this situation the beds may be counted as either overnight-stay or same-day according to their predominant use.

The number of available same day beds should be collected at least monthly at the same time on the same day. To improve accuracy data could be collected more frequently (e.g. daily) at the same time on each day. More frequent data collection is preferable if a single monthly count is likely to be significantly different from the monthly average.

Inclusions: Both occupied and unoccupied beds are included. Beds, chairs or trolleys available, exclusively or predominantly intended to accommodate same-day admitted care or treatment. This includes day surgery beds, dialysis, chemotherapy, electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) and dental chairs for admitted patients.

Exclusions: Exclude beds, chairs or trolleys designated exclusively for same-day non-admitted patient care or predominantly used by non-admitted patients (e.g. emergency trolleys), medical ambulatory care, discharge lounges for patients who have been formally discharged, medi-hotel beds, hospital-in-the-home, neonatal cots (non-special-care), and beds for overnight-stay patients (even where overnight beds are used for unplanned same-day episodes e.g. patients who die or abscond on the day of admission). No adjustment should be made for contracted services, either provided by, or to this hospital.

Origin:
Victorian Department of Human Services

Comments:
This data element is necessary to provide an indicator of the availability and type of service for an establishment.