IMPROVEMENT / FEATURE Watch and learn Stuck with ineffective strategies to reduce length of stay, this team went back to the basics and found success. By Christopher Mangum T he increasing average length of stay (ALOS) is a challenge that plagues adult and pediatric hospitals and health care systems alike. Lengthy hospital stays have proven problematic for several reasons. For one, they increase the probability that patients will develop hospitalacquired conditions such as pressure injuries, peripheral IV infiltrations and extravasations, central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and more. In addition, extended stays increase the probability that patients will experience safety events and higher costs at a time when payers are allowing payment only per Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), which means health care systems must take a loss. While the latter has been regulated in adult health care systems for years, those regulations are slowly migrating to pediatric hospitals. CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Fall 2021 21