Don’t the "Goal Length of Stay" guidelines dictate how long patients may stay in a hospital?

The Goal Length of Stay information provides a snapshot of the recovery times possible in the most efficient healthcare delivery systems. These target lengths of stay cover the entire spectrum of medical and surgical patients, as long as the patient experiences optimal care and optimal recovery.

These guidelines are typically used in planning for inpatient care and projecting the length of stay a patient may require. If the patient has an optimal recovery, if an extended stay is not required and if adequate discharge planning has occurred, the patient can often go home within the Goal Length of Stay. Most importantly, the Care Guidelines^® provide clinical indicators of when it is appropriate to transition a patient to the next level of care. As is the case with coverage and payment decisions, the individual circumstances of each patient must be evaluated in the context of the attending healthcare professional’s clinical judgment in determining treatment patterns and goal lengths of stay.