This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
NICE guidance urges hospitals to appoint discharge coordinators to avoid delays
NICE recommends that the role should be the ‘central point of contact’ for health and social care practitioners, the patients and their family, during discharge planning. The candidates will work with the hospital and community based teams to construct a discharge plan, which will include appraising the patient’s social and emotional well-being as well as the practicalities of daily life.
Furthermore, the guidelines outlined the importance of ensuring that any specialist equipment and support necessary is accessible to the person before they are discharged from hospital.
According to NICE, the guidelines are aimed at making sure people with social care needs in need of hospital treatment receive the support they require to leave hospital in a coordinated and timely manner.
The new guidelines have arisen after the release of NHS figures for August 2015 found over 5,000 people had experienced delays in their discharge from hospital, an increase from the 2012 figure of 3,961.
Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive and director of health and social care for NICE, said: “Going into hospital can be an anxious time for many. For those with extra care needs, they may continue to worry about how they will cope when they go back home.
“Practitioners should be talking to each other, sharing information and planning discharge from the time the person is admitted or earlier if possible.
“We know that it can be challenging to co-ordinate a person’s discharge from hospital when they also have extra care needs.
One of our recommendations is for a single person to co-ordinate the process for each individual to streamline and simplify the process.”
Anna Bradley, chair of Healthwatch England, said: “We heard shocking stories which highlighted how poor co-ordination of health and social care services and a failure to put patients at the heart of discharge planning is resulting in far too many people being kept in hospital longer than necessary, as well as many being discharged too early and being readmitted to hospital soon after. This comes at a huge human and financial cost.
“Everyone should experience a safe, dignified and well planned transfer of care; however our special inquiry into unsafe discharge, ‘Safely Home’, found that sadly this is often not the case. We therefore welcome this new guidance from NICE.”
Latest News
16/02/2024 - 12:56
Hammersmith and Fulham Council has created a new alliance intended to clean dirty air and improve residents' health.
16/02/2024 - 10:44
Two million more GP appointments a month are being delivered for patients compared to the same month before the pandemic as part of the NHS primary care access recovery plan according to new NHS data.
15/02/2024 - 10:26
The Welsh Government has provided innovation funding of £380,000 to support two projects utilising technology in domiciliary care.
15/02/2024 - 10:13
The new Scottish health secretary has met with frontline staff at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
14/02/2024 - 10:27
The North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) has appointed three new Executive Directors to the Trust Board.
Product Features
UK Building Regulations highlight toxic gas and smoke from layers of paint built up over multiple redecorations as a major cause of permanent ill health or death in a building fire.
Their concern rose with discovery the flame retardant paints most widely used paint along escape routes have been ones which to this day counter-productively use emission of heavy toxic gas to smother flames which rapidly spread along walls if layers of paint delaminate in a fire.
Supplier Profiles
Northwich’s Victoria Infirmary (VIN) Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) has enabled more patients
Adveco, the commercial hot water specialist, announces the launch of live metering of domestic ho
Latest Features
Sarah Greenslade, public affairs and communications officer at the British Parking Association looks at some of the problems and innovations in healthcare parking
It’s easy to assume that the comms team is there to handle press enquiries and the occasional social media storm – but the reality is that strategic communications can make a measurable impact across the entire organisation, from operational to financial, when done properly
