Hospital Discharge

6.
Lens 2
Patients recruited
from wards
The main themes to emerge from our audiodiary
data and interviews with patients following
discharge relate participants’ (i.e. patients and
their carers) experience of discharge planning
and care after discharge.
6.1 Communication and discharge planning
Participants talked about a lack of
communication regarding the sequencing of
their care and a lack of personal involvement in
discharge related processes. Communication
problems spanned across the discharge planning
process within the hospital, appearing to
influence how much control and involvement
participants had over their discharge planning
activities. Such miscommunication involved
both interaction between hospital staff and
departments, as well as interaction between ward
staff and patients and carers. These problems
contributed to participants experiencing their
discharge planning as uncoordinated, as they
were not involved and they had little or no
control over the decision-making processes.
For example, communication between hospital
departments and staff produced confusion and
delays for patients on their day of discharge.
In particular, miscommunication (or delayed
communication) between the ward staff and
the hospital pharmacists contributed to delayed
discharges, and the situation often arose in which
participants reported that they had to wait for
several hours, frequently with limited updates,
until they could receive their medication and
were ready to be discharged.
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