Tackling Australia’s Bed Blocking Challenge with OBi

October 30, 2025 | Aged Care Management

Online Bed Inventory A solution to Australia’s Bed‑Blocking Challenge

Did you know that the average wait time for a dementia patient to find suitable residential accommodation is now on average six weeks past their discharge date?

Across Australia, hospitals are feeling the pressure of bed blocking — where patients who are medically ready for discharge remain in acute beds because appropriate aged‑care placements aren’t available. These delays impact hospital capacity, patient flow, and care quality, and add significant cost to the system.

Recent analysis shows that each avoidable hospital day costs between $1,107 and $2,963, adding up to an estimated $2 billion annually. The challenge is driven by a combination of factors: limited aged‑care capacity, workforce shortages, slow discharge processes, and poor coordination between hospitals and providers.

A smarter say to discharge patients

The Weekly SOURCE recently highlighted government initiatives aimed at reducing hospital bed pressure, including plans for co‑located aged‑care and retirement precincts to help patients move more quickly out of hospital.

Technology is central to making these initiatives work. That’s where Obi – Online Bed Inventory -, part of Mirus Australia’s award-winning MirusPlus platform, comes in.

OBi is Australia’s first intelligent, nationwide aged-care bed-availability network—connecting hospitals, referrers, and aged-care providers to streamline admissions, reduce discharge delays, and improve care transitions. It gives staff a live, real-time view of available beds nationwide, enabling discharge planners to secure placements instantly.

How OBi supports hospitals, providers, and patients

OBi replaces slow, manual processes — phone calls, emails, and static bed lists — with a single, connected workflow, helping hospitals discharge patients more efficiently and easing pressure on acute beds. Key features include:

Real-time visibility of aged‑care bed availability nationwide (at present, providers must opt into the program)
Instant booking capability for faster patient transitions
Integrations with major aggregators such as My Aged Care, and provider care management applications
Built on Mirus Australia’s next generation technology platform, MirusPlus, providing a unified platform that connects hospital and aged‑care workflows

Benefits:

Hospitals: unblocking the beds through connecting availability insights to discharge planning team – faster discharges, freed-up beds, shortening admission to discharge times, and reducing acute sector system costs
Aged-care providers: better occupancy management, reduced AN-ACC roster overspend with greater access to respite admissions, improved coordination with referrers, additional income streams from state funded incentives
Patients and families: smoother, quicker transitions into the right care, improving timeliness and the overall quality of care experience our ageing population deserves.

Driving system-wide improvements

By connecting hospital discharge teams, aged-care providers, and government portals through data enabled technologies, MirusPlus’s OBi system is tackling the nationwide epidemic of bed block. Faster, more coordinated patient transitions mean reduced commonwealth costs, improved hospital capacity, and better outcomes for patients and their families.