Discharge Planning
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About Discharge Planning
Returning home from hospital can often be a confusing or difficult time for patients.
Patients often receive a lot of information on procedures, medications, changes in their health condition and rehabilitation, and this can sometimes be a little overwhelming. There are many factors for a patient, their carers and their healthcare team to consider upon discharge from hospital. These can include:
- Changes to physical capabilities
- New or temporary limitations that might place an unexpected impact on daily living
- Changes to diet
- Medication
- Review appointments with the patient's healthcare team and managing this sometimes confusing schedule
- How the patient's recovery should progress
- Many other issues that have may not have been encountered previously
Careful discharge planning has been demonstrated to reduce problems faced by patients after leaving hospital. Hospital discharge planning provides an opportunity to bring together the patient, healthcare team and patient's family/carers to address any issues or potential difficulties that may arise, thereby helping the patient return home safely.
iCAHE is committed to providing information on best practice for people being discharged from hospital and has developed a number of resources that can help patients and clinicians during this stressful period.
Please visit the patients or healthcare professionals pages for further details.