Published 12 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2694
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2694

Practice

Competent Novice

Planning a patient’s discharge from hospital

Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi, specialty registrar in public health medicine 1, Geoffrey Christopher Cloud, consultant physician in geriatric and stroke medicine2

1 NHS Lothian, Edinburgh EH8 9RS, 2 Department of Clinical Neuroscience, St George’s Hospital, London SW17 0QT

Correspondence to: S V Katikireddi vkatikireddi@yahoo.co.uk

Junior doctors have an important role to play in planning a patient’s discharge form hospital

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Discharge planning aims to improve the coordination of services and care after a patient’s discharge from hospital
Good planning requires anticipation of potential problems by good information gathering, early resolution of potential barriers to discharge, and timely referral to the multidisciplinary team
Planning involves close collaboration between the patient, the family, and the multidisciplinary team; this leads to improved patient and carer satisfaction
The junior doctor is often an important coordinating link in the process of discharge


Discharge planning is a process that aims to improve the coordination of services after discharge from hospital by considering the patient’s needs in the community. It seeks to bridge the gap between hospital and the place to which the patient is discharged, reduce length of stay in hospital, and minimise unplanned readmission to hospital.1

Discharge planning is an established part of hospital care, but the process varies and is not entirely evidenced based. . . . [Full text of this article]

Medical factors
Psychosocial factors
Use of medical resources
Patient characteristics
Assessing baseline function
Assessing appropriate discharge destination

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