Administrators at a large hospital wish to lower costs by decreasing the mean length of hospital stays by 1 day. The team consults with a health psychologist who suggests a number of relatively inexpensive practices that have been empirically demonstrated to shorten hospital stays. Outline some of the health psychologists’ suggestions, noting their effect on hospital stays and citing research evidence where applicable.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

(1) Provide Ample Information during admission. The more information on what to expect and how to manage one’s hospital experience, the better. Ley (1982) found that 10 of 11 studies examining the issue showed that more information led to a faster recovery, with a mean decrease of 2 days in the hospital.
(2) Place Patients Undergoing the Same Procedure Together on wards with shared rooms. Kulik and colleagues (1996) found that patients scheduled for heart surgery left the hospital more quickly when they had a hospital roommate who had already undergone the same type of surgery. The savings was about 1 day.
(3) Improve the Hospital’s Landscaping. Ulrich (1984) found that a view of trees rather than a brick wall reduced hospital stays by about 1 day among patients admitted for gallbladder surgery. Where the hospital cannot plant trees, perhaps windowboxes with flowering plants could be installed.