Norma Valdez-Rosa
South University Online
March 8, 2016
Introduction Prolonged hospital length of stays can increase costs not only for the patient but more so for the hospital. A multidisciplinary approach to patient health care and discharge planning is very important to help with this financial burden. When discharge barriers are identified on admission or soon after, it will help in reducing unnecessary hospital length of stays.
Article Reviews Several studies have been done regarding the hospital length of stays using the original or variations on the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP). Other studies have identified limitations surrounding the measurement of delayed discharge and …show more content…
Having the Case Managers and Social Workers rounding on the unit will help tremendously, as the nurses can identify any barriers to discharge on admission or soon after and be able to inform the team during daily rounds. By being able to safely discharge a patient home or to a skilled nursing facility and reduce the hospital length of stay will help with the financial burden. At the facility where I work, the Case Managers and Social Workers round daily on our unit. They get report from each nurse and if there are any barriers to discharge identified, they will get to work on it. An example that I can think of happened this past weekend. I had an undocumented immigrant with no funding who presented to the Emergency Department with slurred speech, numbness and tingling to his left side of face, arm and leg. After examining patient, getting blood work, and CT scans of the head, he was diagnosed with a CVA and transferred to my unit. The patient had been inpatient for five days and was ready for discharge, but needed a walker before he could go home. One of the doctors on the team wanted to wait until Monday for discharge so that the Case Manager could assist this patient with resources for a walker. I quickly made a call to the on call Case Manager and she came in to start working on getting him a walker. Before the end of the …show more content…
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