Early Discharge Planning to Improve Throughput

Abstract

Early discharge planning can improve the safety and outcomes of hospitalized patients. The aim of the multidisciplinary team early discharge rounds was to manage patient flow by removing discharge barriers to reduce the length of stay in the medical/surgical unit. The overall goal of the process improvement project was to make inpatient beds available to admit patients from the emergency department, reducing long ED boarding, and decrease the hours of diversion. The PICOT question for this project was: in the Veteran population (P) in the VA medical/surgical unit, early discharge planning with an interdisciplinary team (I) compared to regular discharge rounds alone (C) will improve patient flow and will result in decreased emergency room medical diversion or prolonged ED boarding (O) within 10 weeks (T). The early discharge planning had a significant impact on the medical/surgical unit in helping to decrease the ED medical diversion. Although the mean length of stay from 2022 to 2023 was not significantly changed, the early discharge intervention for the 10-week period on the medical/surgical unit concurred simultaneously with a decreased in diversion hours in the emergency department by 72 hours from the 2022 to 2023 time frames.