Abstract:
Background:High bed occupancy rate is a concern of mental hospitals especially those with
LMIC.This project tends to reduce high bed occupancy rate in Male ward A of Ndera
Neuropsychiatric hospital in Rwanda. Methods:A pre and post interventional study was carried
out in Male ward A to examine the impact of developing and implementing a guideline regarding
admission and discharge process in Ndera Neuropsychiatric Hospital.243 patients admitted and
discharged from ward A during the period of March,April and May 2016 were used in counting
their stayed days in order to measure bed occupancy rate,whereas 236 admitted and discharged
patient were used for measuring bed occupancy rate in male ward A in the period of Dec, 2016;
January and February 2017.Percentages in pre and post intervention are compared to see if the
high bed occupancy rate has reduced.Knowledge of staff on admission and discharge process are
compared before and after training and information given to caregiver and family member is
evaluated,on significant level of 0.005.Results:A total of 6344 stayed days for Admitted and
discharged in pre-intervention in the month of March,April and May of 2016, were compared to
4809 stayed days for admitted and discharged in post intervention in the month of Dec 2016,
January and February of 2017.Bed occupancy rate in pre intervention was 114.9% while after
intervention the bed occupancy is 89%.Admission and discharge guideline is available in the
ward A.18 staff (90%) over 20 invited were trained,55(94.8%) over 58 family members were
informed in the post intervention.P-Value of 0.001.Conclusion:The findings from the study
show that by using all 8 steps of strategy of problem solving applied on high bed occupancy
problem in psychiatric patients,and by using limited resources,guideline on admission and
discharge process is reinforced to staff involved and informed to family members,the problem
ceases to happen significantly on P-value 0.001.
