Expected Date of Discharge Policy

Introduction

This document sets out Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust (ASPH) Estimated Date of Discharge Policy, as well as the standard operating procedure and clinical protocols that support the effective discharge of patients and the real-time monitoring of the setting and reviewing of EDDs. This is in line with our CQUIN indicator (5.2) agreed with North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group for 2013/2014.

The policy, procedures and protocols follow the Emergency & Urgent Care Intensive Support Team (ECIST) guidelines Effective Approaches in Urgent and Emergency Care.

This policy operates alongside the Trust’s Standard Discharge Framework, the Trust’s Policy on Discharge for Adult Patient and the Trust’s RealTime™ Policy.

Purpose

The setting and regular review of Expected Date of Discharge (EDD) helps the Trust to plan and understand its available capacity at all times. The early establishment, and communication of an EDD, based on a person’s acute clinical need, helps the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) to proactively plan and action a patient’s discharge from the start of their admission, or in the case of elective patients, from the pre-assessment stage.

The EDD policy also sets out the involvement of the patient at each stage in the setting and reviewing of the EDD. This enables the patient and their family or care provider to plan for discharge at the earliest possible point (e.g. changes in care needs, home adaptations or transport home from hospital). The ideal system is one where the patient is fully informed about when they will be able to leave hospital (Department of Health, 2004). In the Healthcare Commission’s 2004 national patient survey, patients identified delays in discharge as a key area for improvement (Department of Health, 2004).

Improved monitoring of the setting and achievement of EDDs through RealTime™ will enable the Trust to monitor:

• Patient experience by monitoring of the number of patients going home on their agreed date and;
• Non-clinical delays, signalled when the EDD is reached but the patient remains in hospital beyond this date.

Policy Details