Hospital Discharge

For the vast majority (90%) of survey participants
their admission was unplanned.
Figure 3:
Was admission planned or unexpected?
Planned
5.4 Delays
The majority of respondents reported that their
discharge was going well (79%). However, many
of those who were approached to take part did so
soon after they had arrived in the lounge. Given
that after completing the survey patients often
spent a considerable time waiting before finally
leaving the hospital, it seems that this response
would inevitably have been different had they
been interviewed later. See Figure 4.
Unplanned
Figure 4:
Would you say that your discharge
is going well or that it is delayed?
Going well
5.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Number
Discharge destination
The majority of the sample (79%) reported that
they were being discharged to their own home;
a few participants reported that they were being
discharged to a friend or relative’s home (12%), and
others to a residential care or nursing home (7%).
Delayed
Don’t know
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Number
5.3 Discharge lounge use
We found that the discharge lounge was not
in frequent use; our research ambassadors,
who administered the survey, were informed
that many wards choose not to send patients
to wait there. In particular, they noted that
very few patients were being sent from the
wards situated some distance away from the
discharge lounge area.
Most of those who described their discharge
as delayed reported the main reason for this
delay as being either that they were waiting for
medication and/or a discharge letter (26%).
See Figure 5.
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