Patients and results
| PDSA-0 baseline January–December 2016 (N=954) | PDSAs-1 January–March 2017 (N=275) | PDSA-2 April–December 2017 (N=757) | P value | |
| Age (years) | 56.6 (±18.4) | 57.3 (±18.24) | 58.2 (±18.15) | 0.221 |
| Gender (female/male) | 411/543 | 116/159 | 379/378 | 0.007 |
| Surgical specialty | ||||
| Outliers | 171 (17.9%) | 51 (18.5%) | 131 (17.3%) | 0.887 |
| General | 288 | 72 | 218 | 0.620 |
| UGI | 13 | 3 | 4 | |
| HPB | 210 | 63 | 168 | |
| Colorectal | 272 | 86 | 236 | |
| Patient flow | ||||
| General/digestive surgery’ LOS* | 7.2 (±8.9) | 5.7 (±6.6), p=0.035 | 6.5 (±7.7), p=0.234 | 0.042 |
| Overall LOS* | 6.9 (±8.6) | 5.7 (±6.9), p=0.052 | 6.3 (±7.7), p=0.281 | 0.057 |
| Outliers’ LOS* | 5.1 (±6.3) | 5.3 (7.9) | 5.0 (7.6) | 0.904 |
| General/digestive surgery WWDC* | 14.8 (±3.6) | 17.2 (±4.2) | 16.1 (±4.6) | 0.122 |
| ICU/HDU step-downs/week | 6.5 (±2.0) | 7.3 (±2.8) | 7.1 (±2.7) | 0.393 |
| Cancellations (weekly count) | 0.7 (±2.8) | 0 (±0) | 0.4 (±1.3) | – |
| Monthly 30-day readmissions | 1.2 (±0.5) | 1.8 (±1.3) | 1.5 (±0.7) | 0.259 |
| Staff compliance and satisfaction | ||||
| MDT board round average attendance | – | 83% | 78% | – |
| Staff satisfaction | – | 91% | 83% | – |
*Mean(±SD).
HDU, high-dependency unit; HPB, hepatopancreatobiliary; ICU, intensive care unit; LOS, length of stay; MDT, multidisciplinary team; PDSA, Plan–Do–Study–Act; UGI, upper gastrointestinal; WWDC, weekly ward discharge discharges count.