Inpatient discharge process in a hospital; a case-study at Medisch Spectrum Twente

The patient flow at Medisch Spectrum Twente (MST) from admission to discharge is not optimal. This is mainly caused by that the discharge of inpatient patients from the wards take place rather late on the day. The objective of this study was to identify aspects of the patient discharge process of Medical Spectrum Twente that need to be optimized in order to achieve a better throughput of patients between wards and a lower amount of wrong-bed days. A literature study was conducted to gain information on the discharge process in a hospital. Existing documents have been used derived from the MST platform Qdesk to report the documented discharge process. Focus groups and one interview were organized to gather information concerning the current discharge process. The aspects/themes MST should optimize to achieve a better throughput between wards and a lower amount of wrong-bed days are patient visits, discharge timing, provisional discharge date, transfer from AOA to the clinic, and wrong-bed days.