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A patient, Scruggs, presented to Danville (VA) Regional Medical Center (DRMC) ED about 2 a.m. complaining of two days of prolonged dry heaves. He was triaged in the usual manner, prioritized as "non-urgent," and instructed to wait in the waiting area until his name was called. The court pointedly noted that the triage nurse failed to document the patient's "diabetic ketoacidosis condition or his history of diabetes."
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One after the other, videotapes on primetime news showed a patient, Esmin Green, being ignored by ED staff as she lay dying on a waiting room floor in a Brooklyn psychiatric hospital after waiting almost 24 hours for a bed. What impact will this "horror story" case, and others like it, have on ED litigation?
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One key to discharge planning is understanding what might prevent your patient from following medication and other instructions.
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Sometimes the best response to regulatory and payer changes in health care is to improve the discharge planning process.
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Transitions in health care are changing more quickly than patients' expectations, which is why it's important to address these expectations head-on, an expert notes.
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Hospitals across the United States are seeing an increase in patients who have limited English proficiency (LEP), and this means discharge planners must plan accordingly.
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Too often health care professionals give patients instructions and education without taking the additional step of making sure they understand.
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Discharge planners know intuitively that what they do matters to patients' health and safety and to reducing the public health costs of repeated hospitalizations.
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Discharge planning for orthopedic surgery patients at one major hospital begins well in advance of patients being admitted for surgery.
