1Associate Professor, University School of Hotel Management, Desh Bhagat University, Mandi Gobindgarh, India
2Ayurvedic Physician and Nutritionist, 78/13 Anant Nagar, Khanna, India
Online published on 31 October, 2017.
Discharging patients from the hospital is a complex process that is fraught with challenges. Discharge planning is the development of an individualized discharge plan for the patient prior to leaving the hospital, to ensure that patients are discharged at an appropriate time and with provision of adequate post discharge services. The present study has been conducted on 270 patients admitted at a multispecialty hospital, Ludhiana to understand the flow of discharge process. Various timings including discharge intimation time, billing card submission time, drugs clearance time, pharmacy clearance time, final bill intimation time, final bill clearance time, final summary time, handover time, vacancy of room and time taken for preparation of room for next patient were recorded to study actual time taken at each step from discharge order to the physical room vacancy by the patient. The present study results revealed that maximum turnaround time of 9: 07 hours was consumed between discharge intimation to handover to patient and on an average 5: 07 hours time has been taken between discharge intimation to room preparation for the next patient. Minimum turnaround time of 18 minutes has been recorded for updation of billing card on floor and its receipt at IP billing.
Discharge planning, discharge process, discharge order, discharge intimation, turnaround time
