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Creating an ideal discharge process

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, May 2, 2007

Most hospitalists agree that the time immediately after discharge is one of the most vulnerable for patients, yet little evidenced-based medicine exists regarding discharge best practices, reports the April issue of Hospital Management Advisor (HMA).

Jeff Greenwald, MD, director of hospital medicine at Boston Medical Center, is quoted in the article as saying that there is not yet an ideal discharge process. However, he says, the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) is developing a standardized discharge procedure for elderly patients. The November/December Journal of Hospital Medicine detailed trials of the process.

Note: See the April issue of HMA for a discharge checklist for the elderly.

"There isn't yet an evidence basis for testing discharge procedures against outcomes. What we do have has been built on consensus," Greenwald says in the article. Hospitalists have been looking to organizations such as the National Quality Forum (www.qualityforum.org) for guidance on discharge procedures, the article asserts. 

For more information about HMA or to subscribe, go to www.hcpro.com/pub-3615-4-2007.html.

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