Adjusting the Discharge Process for Improved HCAHPS Scores

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=TcsACP_jCko

http://blog.alwaysculture.com/adjusti... • The unfortunate truth is that no patient wants to be in your hospital and everyone is focused on going home. • There are five questions on the HCAHPS survey dealing with the discharge home or the transition of care and all of these questions really center around our level of communication with our patients about their discharge and in addition to that, it's their level of understanding of their instructions and our level of understanding of their preferences. • Where all of this really breaks down is really at the...the main problem with the whole discharge process and the main problem is that we, as health care providers, have designed this discharge process for us and not for our patients. That's the main problem that we designed it as something that's at the end of their stay, we give them the information they need, the education they need and now they're gone. But for our patients, they need this information a lot sooner. • So the main tactic we have for dealing with the process of discharge is to start this discharge process at admission, to start it as early as possible in the process. Start talking immediately with your patients about who are they going home with? Who's their primary caregiver? Where are they going home? Do they need equipment? Do they need extra help? • All of these questions should be addressed right from the beginning of their stay, not to wait till the end. When you do reach that final hour and moment of discharge you use your written information, that written packet of discharge planning that every facility has with their precautions for going home, their instruction on their medications. And all that is great and essential, but why save that until the end? Why not, if that's so important, let's give it to them at the beginning of their stay. Yes, their medications can change toward the end of the stay, but why not at the beginning give them the precautions for the surgery that we know they've already had? Give them information on the medications we know they'll be going home with and not just for them to have it, but for us to reference it. Every time we go into the room, we're talking about a medication, pull out their discharge information, here's the instructions on that. We're talking about a precaution for when they're standing or sitting. Pull out their discharge information and point to those precautions. It should be something to where, by the end of their stay at that moment and day of discharge, they look and could almost tell you their discharge instructions on medications and precautions. That's what you're going for. • Also, at our discharge moment we need a process. A process that we do for every patient and every time. Yes, we should be talking about discharge all the way at the beginning of our entire stay. But at that moment of discharge there are six main steps that we should be following to have a successful discharge education. The first is just to basically talk about their diagnosis, to follow up with any treatments that were done and what the result of those treatments were. Go over any test results and talk about any symptoms that they can look for when they go home. We talk about any follow-up appointments they have and finally we talk about instructions on any of their medications they're taking home with them. • Again, this is a process that should be done for every patient at every discharge, but more importantly, the main take away from this is to start discharge planning early, start it at admission, talk about where they're going home with, who their primary caregiver is, if they need help, but really to keep this as a constant conversation throughout their entire stay, not at the last hour. • If you'd like to dig deeper into some of these tactics, visit our website for more resources on creating a great patient experience.

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