Decision makers and criteria for patient discharge - a qualitative study.

Abstract

The decision to discharge a patient involves multiple stakeholders and criteria that need to be considered during this process. This paper aims at identifying the issues, behaviours, and needs for patient discharge with regards to the risk of readmission and the available information in that process using a qualitative approach. For this purpose, focus groups are conducted at an Australian not-for-profit tertiary hospital group and analysed according to three main areas: Decision makers and factors influencing the time of patient discharge, the risk of unplanned readmission and available information. The results of the focus groups indicate the complexity of admission and initial diagnosis as influencing factors and consequences of the time of patient discharge and suggest requirements on how to include this knowledge into future decision making using data analytics.