Homeward Bound: Readiness Assessment Expedites Discharge

To ensure that healthy patients are back at home as soon as possible, Baptist Health in Lexington, Kentucky, developed a system in Epic to identify common, non-medical hold-ups providers encounter during the discharge process. With their Discharge Readiness tool, Baptist Health was able to decrease the average length of stay by 0.5 days and reduce the average time between a provider placing a discharge order and the patient leaving the hospital by 30 minutes.

Case managers, physicians, and nurses use a checklist in Epic combined with their own observations to answer basic questions about a patient and identify possible barriers to discharge. They are prompted to assess whether patients have the devices, medications, and transportation they need to go home. For patients with only logistical obstacles keeping them in the hospital, nurses can work toward arranging solutions.

Epic community members can view Baptist Health’s presentation and listen to the audio.