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RTDC
Every day, there is considerable discussion within the hospital about the number of available beds to accommodate (emergency) patients—even though, hospital-wide, there are enough beds available. As a result, patients are placed in overflow beds, waiting times and access times for elective treatments increase, and nursing departments experience high workload. To address these issues, we have been working with the Real Time Demand and Capacity (RTDC) methodology since 2018.
read moreRTDC
Every day, there is considerable discussion within the hospital about the number of available beds to accommodate (emergency) patients—even though, hospital-wide, there are enough beds available. As a result, patients are placed in overflow beds, waiting times and access times for elective treatments increase, and nursing departments experience high workload. To address these issues, we have been working with the Real Time Demand and Capacity (RTDC) methodology since 2018.
RTDC offers a proven effective solution. This hospital-wide approach optimizes demand for and supply of clinical beds, with nurse leadership as a key principle. RTDC focuses both on increasing efficiency by improving throughput (the number of patients flowing through the hospital per unit of time) and on enhancing the work experience of doctors and nurses.
What is RTDC?
The Real Time Demand and Capacity (RTDC) methodology offers a proven effective solution. This hospital-wide approach optimizes the daily alignment of demand for and supply of clinical beds, with nurse leadership as a key principle.
read moreWhat is RTDC?
The Real Time Demand and Capacity (RTDC) methodology offers a proven effective solution. This hospital-wide approach optimizes the daily alignment of demand for and supply of clinical beds, with nurse leadership as a key principle.
RTDC ensures that doctors and nurses spend virtually no time searching for available beds. Through daily coordination led by nurses—supported by pharmacists, radiologists, cleaning services, lab technicians, and others—the workflow is fundamentally transformed. Tasks are optimized, reorganized, and delegated to where they will have the greatest impact.
RTDC is carried out by nurses and consists of four standardized daily steps:
- Predicting capacity
- Predicting demand
- Creating an action plan to resolve any mismatch between demand and capacity
- Evaluating results
All clinical nurses make daily standardized predictions of which patients are expected to be discharged the next day. When necessary, they initiate action plans to address any anticipated bed shortages. The various clinical wards support one another in this process every day.
Why RTDC?
In many Dutch hospitals, there is a daily struggle with inefficient use of bed capacity and poor coordination between nursing wards.
This results in:
- Insufficient bed capacity: Emergency and elective patients cannot always be admitted, leading to cancelled surgeries and placement on inappropriate wards.
- Uneven distribution of available beds: While some nursing wards consistently face shortages, beds on other wards remain unused.
- Limited collaboration between wards: Despite efforts such as central bed meetings and the deployment of bed coordinators, effective and integrated cooperation between wards is lacking.
- High workload for healthcare professionals: Doctors and nurses spend considerable time organizing bed capacity, at the expense of focusing on patient discharge. This leads to unnecessarily long lengths of stay.
- Unnecessary reservation of beds: Beds are held for planned future admissions, while emergency patients cannot be placed.
This situation leads to inefficient care, frustration among professionals, and a decline in the quality of care for patients. A structural, hospital-wide solution is essential to resolve these problems and make healthcare future-proof.
Previous achievements
In both Radboudumc and the second hospital where RTDC has been implemented, the method has proven (and continues to be) effective, with sustained involvement from nurses:
read morePrevious achievements
In both Radboudumc and the second hospital where RTDC has been implemented, the method has proven (and continues to be) effective, with sustained involvement from nurses:
- The number of ambulances redirected to another hospital due to a lack of beds has been reduced to zero.
- Regional hospitals now refer their patients to us. Shorter length of stay in the ED (avg. 30 minutes), ICU (avg. 12 hours), and inpatient ward (avg. 5 hours).
- No surgery cancellations due to bed shortages. Improved workload distribution and increased job satisfaction among nurses.
- Greater nursing leadership and collaboration between wards.
- Central insight into bed capacity and immediate placement of patients in the right bed.
Register brunch session RTDC
Thursday morning, the 19th of June, at 8.30 am, our RTDC experts organize a brunch session for those interested in the RTDC-methodology. Registering for this session is possible by sending an e-mail. Please indicate in this e-mail:
- Organization
- Amount of participants representing your organisation, including job title
- Contact details of point of contact
Background
RTDC is the only evidence-based, hospital-wide method that simultaneously increases efficiency, reduces workload, improves job satisfaction, and structurally identifies new bottlenecks in patient flow.
read moreWhat can PVI offer?
The organizational consultancy group PVI at Radboudumc has IHI-trained experts who can support the implementation of RTDC in other Dutch hospitals. They have developed a complete implementation plan that has been successfully used at both Radboudumc and a hospital in the Eindhoven region (since late 2024) to implement RTDC. As a result, RTDC is fully scalable and reproducible.
More information?
Are you interested and would like to know more about the RTDC methodology or what is needed to implement RTDC in your hospital as well? Then please contact our office: secretariaatPVI@radboudumc.nl
(024) 36 163 48
They will ensure that one of our RTDC experts gets in touch with you.
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