Using the Red/Yellow/Green Discharge Tool to Improve the Timeliness of Hospital Discharges

Article-at-a-Glance Background As part of Yale-New Haven Hospital (Connecticut)'s Safe Patient Flow Initiative, the physician leadership developed the Red/Yellow/Green (RYG) Discharge Tool, an electronic medical record–based prompt to identify likelihood of patients' next-day discharge: green (very likely), yellow (possibly), and red (unlikely). The tool's purpose was to enhance communication with nursing/care coordination and trigger earlier discharge steps for patients identified as "green" or "yellow." Methods Data on discharge assignments, discharge dates/times, and team designation were collected for all adult medicine patients discharged in October–December 2009 (Study Period 1) and October–December 2011 (Study Period 2), between which the tool's placement changed from the sign-out note to the daily progress note. Results In Study Period 1, 75.9% of the patients had discharge assignments, compared with 90.8% in Period 2 ( p p p p Conclusions The RYG Discharge Tool helped facilitate earlier discharges, but accuracy depends on placement in daily work flow and experience.