Bed management in Tasy: reservation, occupancy, transfer and release
An empty bed nobody released in the system costs as much as an occupied bed with no revenue. How to keep the Tasy bed board equal to reality and what to measure to find the lost hours.
Bed management is the work of putting the right patient in the right bed as fast as possible and releasing the bed as soon as it frees up. In Tasy, it depends on one thing: the bed board matching reality at all times. When an empty bed stays "occupied" in the system for two hours after discharge, the ED waits, the operating suite delays the next case and the month's occupancy looks lower than it really was.
The status of each bed
| Status | When | Who changes it |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Ready for a patient | Housekeeping, when finished |
| Reserved | Admission or transfer confirmed | Bed management |
| Occupied | Patient admitted | Admission or transfer |
| Cleaning | Patient left, cleaning under way | Discharge or transfer |
| Blocked | Maintenance, isolation, staff shortage | Bed management, with reason and expected release |
| Inactive | Out of service indefinitely | Master data, removing it from the bed count |
Names vary with the setup. What matters is that each change is recorded when it happens.
The rules that keep the board right
- Administrative discharge when the patient leaves, releasing the bed for cleaning.
- Housekeeping records the end of cleaning; the bed returns to free immediately.
- Reserve only with a confirmed admission or transfer, with a deadline; an expired reservation returns to free.
- Always block with a reason and an expected release.
- Inactive beds leave the register: if they still count as available, occupancy looks lower than it is.
- Transfers at the real time, in both units.
- Check the board with nursing every shift.
Where the hours are lost
Bed turnover (from one patient leaving to the next arriving) has steps, and each one can lag:
| Step | Typical delay | How to measure in Tasy |
|---|---|---|
| Medical → administrative discharge | Patient waits for documents, transport, family | Difference between the two records |
| Administrative discharge → cleaning starts | Housekeeping not notified | Difference between discharge and the start record |
| Cleaning | Short staff, isolation | Cleaning time by bed type |
| Free → reserved | Bed management without a view of the board | Time from free to reserved |
| Reserved → admitted | Transport, porter, paperwork | Time from reservation to admission |
Measuring each step shows where to act. In hospitals with high occupancy, cutting the time between medical and administrative discharge usually frees more capacity than opening beds.
Expected discharge
Bed management is planning. An expected discharge date, recorded by the physician or nursing from admission and reviewed at rounds, lets the team know in the morning how many beds will free up in the afternoon. Without it, the hospital reacts to the ED queue instead of getting ahead of it.
Bed KPIs
- Occupancy rate by unit (hospital occupancy rate).
- Bed turnover: discharges ÷ beds, in the period.
- Turnover interval: average time a bed stays empty between two patients.
- Cleaning time by bed type.
- Blocked beds and reason, by day.
- Boarding time in the ED and the operating suite.
- Discharges before noon: share of discharges done in the morning, which free beds for the afternoon.
Length of stay ties all of these together; see average length of stay.
Bed board and census
The daily census comes from the same statuses. A blocked bed leaves bed-days; a bed inactive in practice but not in the system counts as available; a late transfer puts the patient in the wrong unit. The nightly census snapshot is only as good as the bed board.
Who writes this
Domínio has worked for more than 20 years with hospitals that run Tasy. To talk about bed management at your hospital, reach us on WhatsApp or at comercial@dominiocontabil.com.br.
Related questions
Does a blocked bed count in occupancy?
It leaves bed-days, because it is not available. That is why a block needs a reason and an expected release: a forgotten block improves the rate on paper and hides capacity.
Who should record the end of cleaning?
The housekeeping team, the moment they finish. If the record depends on someone else, the bed sits idle.
Is it worth reserving beds in advance?
For confirmed elective admissions, yes, with a deadline. A reservation without a deadline becomes an idle bed.
What is the turnover interval?
The average time a bed stays empty between one patient leaving and the next arriving. It is calculated from bed-days, patient-days and discharges in the period.
Written by the Domínio team behind Clic Health: accountants, controllers and developers with more than 20 years of work with hospitals that run Tasy. Have a question about Tasy? Talk to us on WhatsApp.