Discharge planning for stroke patients in medical ward, Songklanagarind Hospital

A discharge planning project for stroke patients was implemented in the medical ward of Songklanagarind Hospital between April 1st 2001- December 31st 2002. The project aimed at studying the effect of the discharge planning program on the incidence of complications, hospital stay, expense of hospital stay and readmission within 16 weeks after discharge. There were 100 cases of stroke patients admitted between January 1st and December 31st 2000 before the project was started. The patients' mean age was 65.59 years. The incidence of complications rate was 23%. The highest incidence of complication was pneumonia (15%), and the second and third were bed sore (12%) and urinary tract infection (10%) respectively. The mean hospital stay and expense of hospital stay were 10.07 days and 17,075 baht. From the time of initial hospital discharge to 16 weeks after discharge, 8 % of stroke patients were readmitted. During the time of implementing the project, there were 264 cases of stroke patients and the patients' age mean was 65.83 years. The incidence of complications was 17.8 %. The highest incidence of complication was urinary tract infection (9.5%) and the second and the third were pneumonia (6.4%) and bed sore (4.5%) respectively. The mean of hospital stay was 7.95 days. The mean expense of hospital stay was 11,574.03 baht. From the time of initial hospital discharge to 16 weeks after discharge, 6.8% of stroke patients were readmitted. These results showed that the discharge planning project could decrease hosptal stay and expense of hospital stay significantly (p < .05) but could not decrease incidence of complications and readmission rate.