Quality and Outcomes Reports - Critical Care

Discharge Delay

Why we measure it - Minimizing delays in sending kids home from the hospital helps ensure children receive the most appropriate care and resources. Avoiding discharge delays in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit means that beds are open to meet the needs of other critically ill children. 

What this means - Discharge delay is the time in hours between when a patient is identified as medically ready to leave the PICU and the time they actually leave. The discharge delay at Children's Hospital is compared with other children's hospitals across the country. Compared with other PICUs, we have continued to reduce delays in discharge.

About the data - The VPS database collects information from children's hospitals around the country. The data show the discharge delay in hours from the PICU in comparison to those from the VPS group.

Related dimensions of care:

What we're doing to provide the best care:

  • Children's Hospital has been involved in national work to decrease PICU discharge delays.
  • Efforts to reduce unnecessary stays in the PICU should be balanced with other measures to ensure that children are not sent home too early. We also measure risk-adjusted length of stay and unplanned readmission to the PICU within 24 hours of discharge.
  • Specially trained pediatric critical care physicians and pediatric nurse practitioners are available on-site 24 hours a day to respond to patient and family needs.
  • Parents, grandparents and legal guardians may visit 24 hours a day.
  • Families traveling from long distances are encouraged to use our Family Accommodations Program to make travel arrangements and coordinate appointments. Children's Hospital has partnered with non-profit organizations like Ronald McDonald House and Kathy's House to offer comfortable, "home away from home" accommodations. Local hotel chains on our referral list also offer discounts for patient families.
  • The Al McGuire Pediatric Intensive Care Unit is a Level I regional referral center that provides the highest level of pediatric critical care. It is one of the few PICUs in the region offering extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a type of heart-lung bypass.  
  • We have a highly specialized Children's Transport Team available 24 hours a day to bring very ill and injured infants and children to our center. The team transports more than 1,500 children each year.

Patients and families:

  • Be an advocate for your child. Participate in daily bedside clinical discussions. Provide any information about your child that may be helpful to staff.

Referring physicians:

  • Referring physicians can access our specialists for consultation or transport 24 hours a day. Call our physician referral line at (800) 266-0366.  
  • Health care providers from outside of our southeastern Wisconsin service area are encouraged to use our web-based 
    e-Consult service. This service is available for non-urgent patient cases only and gives providers access to our specialists to review patient cases, obtain medical advice or second opinions, and receive care recommendations for rare symptoms and illnesses.
    e-Consult is not to be used by the general public, parents/guardians or families.
  • Care guidelines for medical professionals
  • Educational materials
  • Pocket Directory

If you have questions about this information, email us or call (414) 266-6556.