Making Your Patient Discharge Process The Best It Can Be
The article emphasizes the importance of optimizing the patient discharge process in hospitals by redesigning workflows to expedite discharge, leveraging real-time location systems (RTLS) for better patient and resource visibility to reduce bottlenecks, and ensuring a seamless, positive end-of-care experience comparable to customer service in hospitality settings.
Optimizing Your Patient Discharge Process & Workflow
You never get a second chance to make a first impression—this is true in every aspect of life, including healthcare. Hospitals often focus on the beginning of the patient journey, thoroughly training staff and volunteers who greet patients and their families, and investing in technologies like digital wayfinding so patients don't feel lost. However, the last impression is just as important and is often neglected.
Think back to your last experience at a concert or a hotel. You probably remember how long it took to leave the venue or to find the luggage cart so you could load your bags and be on your way. Maybe you remember the person who held the door and said, "Thanks for coming." The need for a seamless end-of-care experience, as you would expect in a hotel or restaurant, is still unmet and pertinent in the hospital environment.
Here are three tips to make the discharge process positive for your patients:
1. Redesign Your Processes to Optimize Workflow
Once you notify a patient that they will be discharged, focus your attention on getting that patient "checked out" quickly. Consider rethinking your existing processes—for example, prepping discharge documents ahead of time, or staggering discharges throughout the day instead of having a fixed morning discharge window.
Healthcare providers can leverage RTLS-enabled patient flow solutions to get real-time information on patient status and location, as well as dashboards and reports to identify when and where bottlenecks occur in the workflow so appropriate steps can be taken to resolve them. Care providers who must see a patient on discharge day can easily find the patient, have visibility into which providers are with the patient, and can efficiently fit in their visit prior to discharge, without prolonging the patient's stay.
2. Have Visibility into Your Resources for Faster Response Times
It's important to know if you have the resources available to make the discharge process work. The patient's anxiety will likely increase if they are ready for discharge from a clinical perspective, but there is no transport staff or a wheelchair available to take them to their car.
One way healthcare providers manage this is by using a Real-Time Location System (RTLS), which allows them to see the availability and location of both their staff and assets. This enables them to quickly and efficiently locate available wheelchairs and staff to accommodate the patient's discharge.
3. Train Your Staff on How to Respond to Patient Feedback
Do you put the same amount of training into staff that interact with patients at the end of their visit as at the beginning? Schedulers and patient transport staff should get the same training as greeters and front desk staff, if not more. They will be the ones who hear all the good, bad, and ugly about a patient's stay.
Make sure those staff know how to respond to patient complaints and how they can pass along the feedback they hear. Provide an easy way for patients to provide their feedback on the spot. Some healthcare providers set up kiosks with a feedback app in outpatient clinics or ancillary services such as pharmacies. This allows patients to provide instant feedback, and for staff to be able to respond before patients even leave the hospital.
These are just a few things you can do to ensure your patients have a positive experience at the end of their visit. Remember, the last impression is a lasting impression, so focus on the last memorable moments as much as you do on making a good first impression—you will see the impact it will make in reaching high patient satisfaction.
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Making Your Patient Discharge Process the Best It Can Be
The article emphasizes improving the patient discharge process by redesigning workflows to expedite discharge through pre-prepared documents and staggered timings, utilizing real-time location systems (RTLS) for patient flow visibility to identify bottlenecks, and ensuring resource availability for faster response times, all aimed at creating a seamless and positive end-of-care experience comparable to hospitality standards.
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