The timeliness of discharge planning.

The prospective payment system for the reimburse ment of hospitalizations has stimulated utilization re view and quality assurance activities. Patients are definitely being discharged more quickly, but the pri mary concern is that they would be discharged pre maturely. In either case increased posthospitalization support is required. This study reviewed the timeli ness of the request for the consultation with the dis charge planner, the timeliness of the process of relay ing the consultation to the discharge planner, and the timeliness of the response of the discharge planner to the consultation. The discharge planner was asked to see 35 of the 72 patients in this study during the first week of their hospitalizations. Of the 69 patients who were discharged, 33 were discharged either the same day of or the following day after the consultation request. Although several systems have been devised for early recognition of patients' needs for discharge planning, none would be necessary if physicians would ident...