During a recent quality improvement (QI) meeting, the nursing leadership at a hospital identified an alarming trend: the average time for patient discharge increased by 45 minutes over the past quarter. To address this issue, a performance improvement project is initiated to reduce the discharge time back to its previous average of 3 hours. The team sets a goal to decrease the average discharge time by __________ hours over the next quarter.

Consider the necessary calculations based on the current situation, the previous average discharge time, and the goal set by the leadership. Use your knowledge of performance improvement principles to fill in the blank.