Setting up a new, effective patient-led early discharge process is crucial for safe, quality, compassionate, care at CHFT.

Put simply it is a must, we need to have it in place as soon as possible and to achieve this we have a new team meeting weekly to drive our plans forward.

The team is looking a raft of possibilities to try and achieve the best early discharge process for our patients. Considerations currently being looked at include:

• Exploring how we can give our patients their probable discharge date at the same time as their admission date if they are coming to us for an elective procedure. This will help them and their families to have their plans in place in advance for when they leave us. 
• Looking at how we can best involve families in the discussions when a date is set while they still with us.
• Identifying patients who are fit to leave the next day and ensure they can have a nurse-led discharge (or criteria-led discharge) where this is possible and appropriate.
• Ensuring the discharge process continues over the weekends.

The team is made of our doctors, nurses, managers and our healthcare partners and include social services and primary care colleagues.

Supporting lead Joe Minton  said: " We have to take a dramatically new look at how we work to improve our discharge process for our patients and their families. It means some really different ways of working and we know we can do it." 

For more information contact Caroline Smith caroline.smith@cht.nhs.uk