Technology-Enabled Hospital Discharge: Consolidated Framework of Implementation Research-Informed Qualitative Study of Stakeholder Perspectives on Digital Solutions

Hospital discharge is a complex, time-consuming process that requires coordination across multiple stakeholders. Technology-enabled solutions may improve this process, but their implementation depends on alignment with user needs, workflows, and care contexts. We explored stakeholder perspectives on six candidate digital solutions for hospital discharge as part of a wider service improvement project. We interviewed forty-three purposively sampled healthcare workers, operations staff, patients, and caregivers. We introduced participants to ward-based teleconsultation, smart glasses, AI bots, medication collection boxes, digital discharge documentation, and AI-assisted discharge summary drafting, and explored perceived value, risks and implementation requirements. We analysed the data using a hybrid deductive–inductive approach informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Participants described discharge as poorly communicated, lacking transparency, and often prolonged. We identified eleven subthemes under the five CFIR domains. Participants viewed technologies more favourably when they could see practical value, when the technology was familiar from other contexts, and when it could integrate with existing workflows while preserving the relational aspects of care. Concerns centred on safety, privacy, equity, workflow disruption, burden, and loss of human interaction. Successful implementation requires a clear value proposition, workflow integration, stakeholder co-design, and early attention to training, governance, accountability, and equity.