BACKGROUND Chronically ill people experience frequent changes in health status accompanied by multiple transitions between care settings and care providers. Discharge planning provides support services, follow-up activities, and other interventions that span pre-hospital discharge to post-hospital settings. OBJECTIVE To determine if discharge planning is effective at reducing health resource ...

PURPOSE To analyze the predictive validity and reliability of the Blaylock Risk Assessment Screening Score (BRASS) Index in a large group of patients. METHODS Prospective multicenter observational study was conducted in six Italian hospitals. Data were collected in three phases. FINDINGS Seven hundred eleven patients were recruited. The mean length of hospitalization for low-risk patients w...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to implement potentially better practices for discharge planning in the NICU. METHODS Each participating hospital completed a self-assessment tool on discharge planning and a staff satisfaction survey. Parent satisfaction data were obtained from an Internet-based survey. Many projects regarding discharge planning were completed at each participating c...

AIMS To develop the Discharge Planning of Ward Nurses (DPWN), a Japanese self-evaluation instrument for ward nurses' discharge planning practices. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. METHODS Participants were 624 ward nurses from six hospitals in Japan with a discharge planning department. Items about discharge planning practices were collected from literature and interviews with nurses and rese...

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 identifi...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of the role of a discharge coordinator whose sole responsibility was to plan and coordinate the discharge of patients from medical wards. DESIGN An intervention study in which the quality of discharge planning was assessed before and after the introduction of a discharge coordinator. Patients were interviewed on the ward before discharge and seven to 10...

Introduction: Women with Breast Cancer (BC) under chemotherapy are at risk of complications affecting their Quality of Life (QoL), which need specific discharge planning. Objective: This study aims to investigate the effect of a discharge planning program on the QoL of women with BC. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 72 women with BC undergoing chemotherapy...

BACKGROUND Preparing families and preterm infants for discharge is relatively unstructured in many UK neonatal units (NNUs). Family-centred neonatal care and discharge planning are recommended but variable. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS Qualitative interviews with 37 parents of infants in NNUs, and 18 nursing staff and 5 neonatal consultants explored their views of discharge planning and perception...

Research spanning 30 years has highlighted discharge planning as a complex area of practice. Discharge co-ordinators are part of the support provided to improve the patient's journey from acute to community settings. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the role of discharge co-ordinators in a healthcare setting. Using an exploratory descriptive research design a convenience sample...