The Ministry of Health (MOH) has developed a bed occupancy plan for its hospitals on a monthly basis, as part of its efforts to raise the number of available beds and ensure proper reception of patients.
MOH sources said as a result of the plan, the bed turnover rate reached 3.6 per month at 500-bed hospitals, 2.81 for 400-499 beds hospitals, 3.93 for 300-399 bed strong hospitals, 4.4 for 200-299 bed hospitals, 5.1 for 100-199 beds hospitals, and 6.6 for obstetrics, gynecology and child care hospitals.
This achievement helped reduce the stay time to average 6.8 days at hospitals of 500 beds, and 8.72 days in hospitals of 400-499 beds, 5.56 days in hospitals of 300-399 beds, 4.72 days in hospitals of 200-299 beds, 3.45 days in hospitals of 100-199 beds, and 3.47 days for obstetrics/gynecology and child care hospitals.
Dr. Yasser Al-Ghamdi, Supervisor of the MOH Bed Management Program, said 98 hospitals with 100 beds took part in the Bed Management Program. That is 98 per cent of the hospitals with 100 beds and more (100 hospitals). The percentage of hospitals registered in the Day Surgery Program reached 92 percent of all MOH hospitals with 100 beds and more.
The number of day surgeries carried out in the first half of this year, 1433H, reached 33192 surgeries. That is each patient was given three-day stay. That is equal to the operation of a hospital of 550 beds with an occupancy rate of 100 percent. That is 56 percent above last year's rate.
“The percentage of day surgeries has increased from two percent before 1430H to 33 percent in all hospitals this year. Patients have been served in shorter waiting periods. The ministry currently studies the number of beds available vis-à-vis the population across the Kingdom's provinces to reach the target national rate (4 beds per 1000 people) and implementing that target rate across the provinces within the next five years,” he added.
“This program supports the availability of beds for patients in emergency and routine cases, the optimal use of available resources, and optimal coordination for receiving and transferring patients, evaluating the results of the program and the need for increasing the number of beds,” said Dr. Al-Ghamdi.
“His Excellency the Minister of Health issued directives to raise the percentage of intensive care beds in all hospitals of the Ministry of Health to the global benchmark. The number of intensive care beds reached 2800 until end of 1432H. It is steadily increasing this year and will keep increasing in the years ahead,” he further explained.
Remarkably, the program started on 3/4/1430H. It includes all Ministry of Health hospitals with 100 beds and more. A department for supervising the Program has been launched in all regions. Also, a department for coordinating the transfer of cases to the level of Ministry of Health has been established and is currently operational round the clock. 20 departments work with it from all the regions around the Kingdom. The mission of these departments is to find a free bed for each patient in any health sector around the Kingdom.
A department was established to provide peripheral regions and hospitals with required expertise in the successive visits system across all specialties. By so doing, expert doctors move to these regions to offer the required medical procedure instead of transferring patients. All Health Affairs officials have been given permissions to refer emergency patients to private sector hospitals at the expense of the Ministry and renting beds for chronic cases to cut treatment cost.