Discharge planning: the role of the discharge co-ordinator (original) (raw)

Staff perceptions of discharge planning: A challenge for quality improvement

Australian Health Review, 1999

One hundred staff in three acute care public hospitals were asked about their perceptions of successes and failures of their discharge planning activities. The intention was to highlight ways in which the quality of discharge planning could be improved within the acute hospital setting. Generally staff described failures more commonly than successes, with a number of key failures being identified, including problems associated with vacating beds, lack of appropriate staff, patients and carer education about discharge activities, general process issues, problems associated with community service provision and patients who are difficult to discharge. Staff identified the lack of feedback on the outcome of their efforts as a source of frustration and a barrier to improving discharge planning activities. The challenges for improving the quality of discharge planning in the acute hospital setting would appear to be in establishing appropriate structures and processes that promote interaction between staff, patients and community providers, and provide incentives for behavioural change.

An audit of current discharge planning arrangements and their effectiveness on elderly care wards and community nursing services together with aspects of client satisfaction

Journal of Nursing Management, 1995

An audit of current discharge planning arrangements and their effectiveness on elderly care wards and community nursing services together with aspects of client satisfaction This paper is a review of a clinical audit conducted on the elderly care wards of a National Health Service (NHS) Trust hospital in the East Midlands. The audit examined current discharge planning arrangements and their effectiveness on elderly care wards, community nursing services and client satisfaction. :Sixty sets of nursing notes were examined, 27 community nurses received a questionnaire and 60 patients and 26 carers or significant others were interviewed in the patient's place of residence. The audit findings revealed that, of the 60 sets of notes examined, only 10% of patient discharge plans commenced on admission. Liaison between ward arid community nursing staff to discuss the needs of patients being discharged was minimal. Only 50% of community nurses believed they were adequately informed about, and 40% adequately involved in, patient discharge. Little consultation between ward staff, patients and their carers occurred during the discharge planning phase. The majority of patients (63%) and carers (81%) interviewed said that the patient's needs were not discussed prior to discharge home. The report ended by formulating a list of 11 recommendations which includes a thorough review of current policies, procedures and standards. A multidisciplinary steering group has been formed to assist in the implementation of the recommendations.

Lost in translation: reviewing the role of the discharge liaison nurse in Wales

Health Services Management Research, 2010

In Wales, the National Leadership and Innovation Agency in Healthcare (NLIAH) Change Agent Team (CAT) has found that its service improvement methodology of Communities of Practice (CoP), where motivated frontline staff in health and social care come together to share issues and develop solutions to mutual problems, is a highly effective and informative tool. Health and social care organizations in Wales are in the process of working to develop processes and solutions to remedy the challenges they have over patients with long lengths of stay. This article shows how by speaking to the frontline staff, whose role it is to help people whose discharge is likely to be complex or problematic, they often have most insight into the solutions required to alleviate the situation. The learning in this article is that there is no one solution to improve the discharge process; however there are a number of small changes and improvements required, which if done consistently can have a significant ...

Discharge planning quality from the carer perspective

Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2000

Discharge planning endeavours to assist the transition of patients from the acute hospital setting into the community. We examined the quality of discharge planning from the perspective of the carer. Spouses were the most common carers for the elderly patients in our study. Many carers were also elderly, with their own health problems. Using a new instrument (entitled PREPARED) (K. Grimmer and J. Moss, Int J Qual Health Care (in press)), carers rated the quality of planning for discharge much lower than did the patient, indicating that their needs were often not met when discharge was being planned. In free text responses, carers expressed their dissatisfaction over communication about how the family would cope once the patient went home. Carers generally had lower summary mental quality of life scores than the Australian norms (as measured by the SF-36 health survey (J. Ware and R. Sherbourne, Med Care 1992; 30: 473-483)), suggesting that the caring role may have impacted upon thei...

Discharge planning: communication, education and patient participation

British journal of nursing (Mark Allen Publishing)

For the most part, discharge from hospital is routine and uneventful. However, for a percentage of people, discharge from acute care requires careful planning to ensure continuity of care. This is particularly the case with older patients who have complex medical needs. This literature review reveals that the essential elements for discharge planning are: communication, coordination, education, patient participation and collaboration between medical personnel. Outcomes measures of successful discharge planning include patient satisfaction and quality of life. Smooth and efficient coordination of this process reduces stress and anxiety for the patient, family, nurse, doctor, hospital and community services.

The Analysis of the Influencing Factors related to the Effectiveness of Discharge Planning Implementation in Hospitals: A Systematic Review

Jurnal Ners, 2020

Introduction: Discharge Planning is one of the agendas that is a part of nursing duties. This is not only complicated but it is also a long-term activity, starting from when the patients are admitted to hospital until they are allowed to go home. Factually, it cannot be denied that effective nursing discharge planning implementation will provide benefits for the patient, their family and the professionals within the health care setting. Based on those facts, the author composed this systematic review with the purpose of identifying the influential factors that have a role in terms of the effectiveness of nursing discharge planning implementation in hospitalsMethods: The researcher conducted their investigation in February 2019 and this involved the exploration of scientific papers from ProQuest and Scopus using the keywords ‘nursing discharge planning’, ‘effectiveness’ and ‘implementation’. This paper identified 15 relevant research articles from 500 original full texts. These paper...

Discharge planning: From evidence to practice

Atualmente há uma tendência para precocemente se dar alta hospitalar quer por razões económicas, quer ainda porque o avanço tecnológico o permite. Porém nem sempre o doente tem alta com informação e ensino adequados, e, nem estes foram efetuados com o devido conhecimento não só do meio ambiente habitual do doente mas também das necessidades sentidas por este e pelo seu cuidador. Frequentemente essa tarefa é deixada para a equipe de CSP que também luta com a falta de informação proveniente do hospital. Os Autores baseando-se na sua experiência e em testemunhos relatados por doentes e cuidadores, em sua prática e em investigações anteriores, fazem uma reflexão sobre a alta hospitalar de um doente dependente e sobre a continuidade de cuidados que deve existir entre o hospital e os CSP. Concluem que os cuidados no domicílio após a alta hospitalar trazem dificuldades acrescidas para o doente e cuidadores não imaginadas durante o internamento, e que podem ser em parte, mitigadas pelo acompanhamento da equipe de CSP que prestará uma continuidade de cuidados. Para tal esta precisa de estar devidamente informada pela equipe hospitalar.Também é importante que no planeamento e execução da continuidade de cuidados o paciente e os respetivos cuidadores estejam envolvidos. Desta forma poder-se-á evitar efeitos adversos, por vezes irreparáveis, ou um novo internamento hospitalar não desejado. Palavras-chave: Alta hospitalar; continuidade de cuidados; cuidados domiciliários

Illuminating hospital discharge planning: staff nurse decision making

Applied Nursing Research, 2010

This qualitative study proposed to examine staff RN's decision making related to discharge planning and perceptions of their role. Themes resulting from interviews were following the script, and RN as coordinator. The decision to consult a Discharge Planner occurred when the patient's situation did not follow the RN's expectations. Discharge planning for non-routine situations was considered disruptive to the RN's workflow. The RN's role was limited to oversight when a Discharge Planner was involved. Understanding RNs' decision-making in this key process provides valuable insights into differentiating routine from non-routine patient situations and deploying appropriate resources in a timely fashion.