[Perception of Healthcare Providers Regarding Hospital Bed Utilization: A prerequisite for quality improvement initiatives in Healthcare institutions].

BACKGROUND: Hospital bed utilization is influenced by various factors which can be divided into patient, physician and administration related. These factors should be seen from the eyes of healthcare providers so that any improvement initiative taken by the administration is matched with the health worker's perception which ultimately affect the hospital efficiency and quality of care.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the factors influencing hospital bed utilization from the perspective of healthcare providers.

METHODS: This cross sectional study was conducted in an apex tertiary care public institution in northern region of India. All the resident doctors and nurses in the 18 wards of 7 specialties and 7 super specialties were interviewed using a structured validated self-administered questionnaire.

RESULTS: A total of 279 participants (117 doctors and 162 nurses) were enrolled in the study. The factors significantly influencing bed utilization with regard to doctors are patients (2.34, 0.36), physician (2.47, 0.32), administrative (2.61, 0.29) and with regard to nurses are patient (1.97, 0.40), physician (1.97, 0.46), administrative (2.39, 0.40).

CONCLUSION: Changing healthcare trends in the recent past (innovations in policy decisions, technological advances, business sustainability aspect, quality initiatives etc.), gave an insight to policy makers (administrators) to consider the perception of healthcare providers (human resource) regarding bed utilization as an important component of healthcare delivery system.