Case Study: Lehigh Valley Health Network reduces length of stay with Minitab

Lehigh Valley Health Network reduces discharge delays by 13.6% with Minitab

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) faced a challenge after merging two adjacent hospitals, which resulted in a 40% increase in patient volume on their Medical/Surgical and Cardiac units. Their goal was to improve patient flow and staff satisfaction. To manage this, they used Minitab statistical software to analyze their data and identify opportunities for improvement.

Using Minitab's data visualization tools, including Dotplots and Recoding, the LVHN team identified a critical 10-hour window where most admissions and discharges occurred. The solution was to deploy two dedicated Admission/Discharge nurses. This Minitab-supported initiative led to a significant reduction in late-day discharges, with the most notable result being a 13.6% decrease in discharges to Skilled Nursing Facilities between 6 p.m. and midnight. Over 13 months, these dedicated nurses performed 30% of all admissions and discharges on the two units.

Lehigh Valley Health Network