Determinants of Hospital Discharge Process: Experience from an Apex Tertiary Care Autonomous Institute of National Importance of Eastern India

Background:The discharge of a patient is a time-consuming process comprising of clinical, financial, legal, and administrative and recordkeeping aspects that require proper execution.The discharge process is considered as an important quality indicator of the healthcare services of a hospital.Every hospital has its own discharge policy.Objectives: To study the steps in the discharge process in a tertiary care teaching hospital and identify the causes of delays in in-patient discharges in major clinical wards. Materials and methods:The study was conducted in four major clinical wards of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.The discharge process was recorded using a structured format that was distributed in all the wards.The patient satisfaction and impression regarding the discharged process were recorded using a questionnaire. Results:The various steps identified in the discharge process were discharge summary writing, billing clearance, and patient leaving the hospital.Billing clearance contributed the maximum time from the total time taken for discharge followed by the discharge summary writing.Most of the patients rated their discharge process experience as above average and opined that the discharge process in the hospital was well organized.Conclusion: Discharging patients on time is a challenging task.With adequate manpower and proper patient counseling, the time taken for the process can be reduced.Improving the time taken for a discharge can improve the patient's satisfaction as well as effective bed management for the hospital.