Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Discharge Planning Implementation

Background In many hospitals, a discharge planning team works with the medical team to provide case management to ensure high-quality patient care and improve continuity of care from the hospital to the community. However, a large-scale database analysis of the effectiveness of overall discharge planning efforts is lacking. Purpose This study was designed to investigate the clinical factors that impact the efficacy of discharge planning in terms of hospital length of stay, readmission rate, and survival status. Methods A retrospective study was conducted based on patient medical records and the discharge plans applied to patients hospitalized in a regional medical center between 2017 and 2018. The medical information system database and the care service management information system maintained by the Ministry of Health and Welfare were used to collect data and explore patients' medical care and follow-up status. Results Clinical factors such as activities of daily living ≤ 60, having indwelling catheters, having poor control of chronic diseases, and insufficient caregiver capacity were found to be associated with longer hospitalization stays. In addition, men and those with indwelling catheters were found to have a higher risk of readmission within 30 days of discharge. Moreover, significantly higher mortality was found after discharge in men, those ≥ 75 years old, those with activities of daily living ≤ 60, those with indwelling catheters, those with pressure ulcers or unclean wounds, those with financial problems, those with caregivers with insufficient capacity, and those readmitted 14-30 days after discharge. Conclusions The findings of this study indicate that implementing case management for discharge planning does not substantially reduce the length of hospital stay nor does it affect patients' readmission status or prognosis after discharge. However, age, underlying comorbidities, and specific disease factors decrease the efficacy of discharge planning. Therefore, active discharge planning interventions should be provided to ensure transitional care for high-risk patients.