{"id":25324,"date":"2019-06-18T19:25:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T23:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/?page_id=25324"},"modified":"2025-03-21T23:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T03:32:11","slug":"general-intern-guide-how-to-discharge-patients","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/?page_id=25324","title":{"rendered":"GENERAL INTERN GUIDE: How To Discharge Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Page Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#OVERVIEW\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">1<\/span> OVERVIEW<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#GENERAL_ADVICE_THE_DISCHARGE_PROCESS_BEGINS_WHEN_THE_PATINET_IS_ADMITTED\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">2<\/span> GENERAL ADVICE: THE DISCHARGE PROCESS BEGINS WHEN THE PATINET IS ADMITTED<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#GENERAL_ADVICE_IT_TAKES_A_VILLAGE\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">3<\/span> GENERAL ADVICE: IT TAKES A VILLAGE<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#DISCHARGE_STEP_1_WHERE_IS_THE_PATIENT_GOING\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">4<\/span> DISCHARGE STEP 1: WHERE IS THE PATIENT GOING?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#DISCHARGE_STEP_2_HOW_IS_THE_PATIENT_GETTING_THERE\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">5<\/span> DISCHARGE STEP 2: HOW IS THE PATIENT GETTING THERE?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#DISCHARGE_STEP_3_DOES_THE_PATIENT_HAVE_ADDITIONAL_NEEDS\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">6<\/span> DISCHARGE STEP 3: DOES THE PATIENT HAVE ADDITIONAL NEEDS?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#DISCHARGE_STEP_4_CONDUCTING_THE_MEDICAL_RECONCILIATION\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">7<\/span> DISCHARGE STEP 4: CONDUCTING THE MEDICAL RECONCILIATION<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h5><span id=\"OVERVIEW\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">OVERVIEW<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Discharging patients from the hospital\u00a0<strong><em>properly<\/em><\/strong> is perhaps one of the most important tasks assigned to interns. If the movement of patients outside of the hospital becomes compromised then the consequences can be incredibly dire. It may seem callous to emphasize the discharge process so strongly however it is very important to appreciate why it is so important to discharge patients promptly.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 873px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2018\/03\/19\/15\/04\/faucet-3240211_1280.jpg\" alt=\"Free Faucet Sink photo and picture\" width=\"883\" height=\"588\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The movement of patients in and out of the hospital is similar to the movement of water in and out of a sink. If you have an outflow obstruction you are going to have issues (<a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2018\/03\/19\/15\/04\/faucet-3240211_1280.jpg\">image source<\/a>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At this point it is worth noting that any patient that belongs in the hospital (i.e. requires inpatient medical care) should obviously be exempt from aggressive discharging because their care requires the hospital setting. Paradoxically, the more patients that remain on a service that don&#8217;t require inpatient care, the more opportunities there are for them to compromise the care of others of those who belong in the hospital. As an intern, one&#8217;s resources are finite and it is not possible to care for an infinite number of patients. The longer the patient list the longer rounds are, the more pages the team will receive, the more paperwork needs to be completed daily, and the more opportunities for medical error.<\/p>\n<p>It is for this reason that this guide has been put together to help interns optimize their workflow when discharging patients so that they can properly facilitate the movement of patients outside the hospital.<\/p>\n<h5><span id=\"GENERAL_ADVICE_THE_DISCHARGE_PROCESS_BEGINS_WHEN_THE_PATINET_IS_ADMITTED\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">GENERAL ADVICE: THE DISCHARGE PROCESS BEGINS WHEN THE PATINET IS ADMITTED<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>It is important to understand that ideally the discharge process should (in part) begin when the patient is admitted to the hospital. Often times it can be difficult to do this in practice because the discharge needs of the patient may change dramatically, however small efforts (such as starting a discharge summary) can have a large impact later on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It is important to note that sometimes the\u00a0admission process is so hectic that even starting a\u00a0discharge summary is not practical.\u00a0This is OK however\u00a0whenever possible think\u00a0about how you can set up the discharge in the future on recently admitted patients!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><span id=\"GENERAL_ADVICE_IT_TAKES_A_VILLAGE\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">GENERAL ADVICE: IT TAKES A VILLAGE<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span id=\"DISCHARGE_STEP_1_WHERE_IS_THE_PATIENT_GOING\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">DISCHARGE STEP 1: WHERE IS THE PATIENT GOING?<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><span id=\"DISCHARGE_STEP_2_HOW_IS_THE_PATIENT_GETTING_THERE\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">DISCHARGE STEP 2: HOW IS THE PATIENT GETTING THERE?<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span id=\"DISCHARGE_STEP_3_DOES_THE_PATIENT_HAVE_ADDITIONAL_NEEDS\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">DISCHARGE STEP 3: DOES THE PATIENT HAVE ADDITIONAL NEEDS?<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span id=\"DISCHARGE_STEP_4_CONDUCTING_THE_MEDICAL_RECONCILIATION\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">DISCHARGE STEP 4: CONDUCTING THE MEDICAL RECONCILIATION<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<pre>Page Updated: 06.18.2019<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Page Contents1 OVERVIEW2 GENERAL ADVICE: THE DISCHARGE PROCESS BEGINS WHEN THE PATINET IS ADMITTED3 GENERAL ADVICE: IT TAKES A VILLAGE4 DISCHARGE STEP 1: WHERE IS THE PATIENT GOING?5 DISCHARGE STEP 2: HOW IS THE PATIENT GETTING THERE?6 DISCHARGE STEP 3: DOES THE PATIENT HAVE ADDITIONAL NEEDS?7 DISCHARGE STEP 4: CONDUCTING THE MEDICAL RECONCILIATION OVERVIEW Discharging &#8230; <a title=\"GENERAL INTERN GUIDE: How To Discharge Patients\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/?page_id=25324\" aria-label=\"More on GENERAL INTERN GUIDE: How To Discharge Patients\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":24755,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P71awf-6As","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25324"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28753,"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25324\/revisions\/28753"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stepwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}